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THE 


SABBATH  INSTITUTION: 


TRACED     AND     DEFENDED 


'ghtf^x^  n)i  ^|op5. 


REV.    FREDERIC     DENISON,A.M 
Pastor  of  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  Norwich,  Conn. 

"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man."— Mark  ii.  27. 


PHTLABELPniA.: 

AMEBICAN    BAPTIST    PUBLICATION    SOCIETY. 

18  5  5. 


I  ftEC.  APRlbdi  \ 

PREFACE. 

Mr  position  in  social  and  public  life  lias 
pressed  upon  my  attention  the  various  ques- 
tions that  have  arisen,  and  the  different  prac- 
tices that  have  obtained,  in  respect  to  the 
Institution  here  treated.  I  have  endeavored 
to  examine,  as  far  as  possible,  ivith  impartiality 
and  in  the  light  of  Christian  Philosophy, 
whatever  has  been  written  by  competent  men 
on  this  interesting  and  important  subject. 

As  I  have  found  no  work  which  discusses  this 
Institution  as  a  whole,  in  all  its  changes  and 
adaptations,  reaching  from  Eden  to  the  end  of 
time,  meeting  all  the  leading  opposing  positions 
that  have  been  taken  against  it ;  and  as,  in 
Divine  Providence,  I  have  been  called  to  the 
responsibilities  of  a  public  teacher  in  these 
matters,  I  have  felt  necessitated,  in  duty  to 
the  people  of  my  charge,  and  in  faithfulness 
to  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  to  pursue  the 
investigations  and  to  prepare  the  train  of 
thought  here  presented. 

My  only  indebtedness,  deserving  of  mention, 


PREFACE. 


has  been  to  Rev.  A.  A.  Phelps,  in  a  work  of 
much  merit  on  several  points,  though  aimed  to 
meet  a  special  issue,  entitled  "  An  Argument 
for  the  Perpetuity  of  the  Sabbath." 

I  have  no  desire  to  appear  as  a  polemic. 
I  have  chosen  to  assail  no  man  and  no  party. 
My  aim  has  been  positive  instead  of  negative. 
I  have  looked  for  truth,  not  men.  I  have 
merely  contended  against  positions ;  and  I 
have  done  this  only  in  the  defence  of  principles. 
I  can  love  and  respect  those  from  whom  I  am 
compelled  in  opinion  to  differ.  And  however 
kindly  and  fraternal  our  feelings,  only  a  full, 
frank,  faithful  discussion  of  the  truth  can  ever 
bring  us  from  our  necessarily  different  social 
and  educational  stand-points  to  see,  think,  and 
practice  alike.  To  such  a  discussion,  with 
respect  to  such  an  end,  this  little  volume,  pre- 
pared perhaps  too  hastily,  amidst  the  pressure 
of  pastoral  duties,  is  prayerfully,  hopefully 
given. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

1.  Reasons  for  writing. — 2.  General  divisions  of  the  subject. — 3.  Best 
mode  of  considering  a  subject. — 4.  Different  stand-point  from  which 
the  Sabbath  Institution  is  viewed. — 5.  Different  views  held. — 6  An 
important  feature  of  the  Divine  Government. — 7.  This  feature  illustra- 
ted by  analogy— Father  training  his  child.— 8.  Key  of  explanation 
serviceable  in  tracing  and  defending  the  Sabbath  Institution....pp.  9-18 


PAUT  FIRST. 

€\^z  pistorg  of  llj£  Institution. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Origin  of  the  Institution  and  its  History  during  the  antedilu- 
vian AND  PATRIARCHAL  AGES. 

1.  Its  history  divided  into  four  periods.— 2.  First  period. — 3.  Origin 
of  the  Institution. — 4.  Signification  of  word  "sabbath." — 5.  Man  needed 
the  Institution. — 6.  Its  time  was  merely  the  platform  on  which  it  stood. 
7.  Immaterial  whether  we  understand  "  days"  or  "  periods.'' — Remarks 
of  Hugh  Miller. — 8.  The  Institution  in  Eden. — 9.  Its  observance  du- 
ring the  antediluvian  and  patriarchal  ages — Frequency  of  its  mention. 

10.  Necessary  to  social  public  worship — Instances  of  such  worship. 

11.  Division  of  time  into  weeks — "  Heptade  of  days"—"  Weeks." — 12.  Sep- 
tenary division  of  time  originated  by  the  Institution pp.  19-30 

CHAPTER  II. 

Restoration  of  the  Institution  to    the  Isr.aelites   on   their 
emancipation  from  egypt. 

1.  The  question  of  its  restoration. — 2.  Duration,  nature  and  results 
of  the  bondage — Facts  stated.— 3.  Evidence  from  the  plagues. — 4.  Res- 
toration of  the  Institution  a  prime  end  to  be  secured  by  the  deliver- 


b  CONTENTS. 

ance — Proofs. — 5.  Hebrews  coerced  into  idolatry. — 6.  Signification  of 
words  "  feast"  and  "  sign." — 7.  The  deliverance  best  explained  by  the 
restoration  of  the  Institution — Explanation  ofDeut.  v.  12-15 — Expo- 
sition of  Ex.  xTi.— Distribution  of  the  manna. — 8.  Eeasons  in  the 
Decalogue. — 9.  Two  reasons  why  the  Institution  could  not  be  a  memo- 
rial of  the  deliverance — The  ordinances  that  memorialized  the  deliver* 
ance pp.  31-45 

CHAPTER  in. 

Incorporation  of  the  Institution  into  the  politico-religious 

CODE   OF   THE   JeWS. 

1.  IMosaic  economy  made  up  of  two  kinds  of  enactments. — 2.  The 
Sabbath  Institution  incorporated  as  a  posiiii'e  requirement — Positii  e 
laws  in  regard  to  its  observance. — 3.  The  Jewish  economy  was  politico- 
religious — Certain  distinctions  then  unknown. — 4.  Certain  distinctions 
to  be  borne  in  mind. — 5.  The  Sabbath  Institution  originally  moral  in 
its  essence — Mixed  economy  suited  to  the  Hebrews. — 6.  Substance  of 
the  Decalogue  originally  moral — made  positive  however  to  the  world  for 
a  time. — 7.  General  feature  of  the  Divine  Government  recalled. — 8.  De- 
sign of  the  Hebrew  polity. — 9.  Position  of  the  Sabbath  Institution — 
What  if  it  terminated  with  the  Hebrew  economy pp.  46-64 

CHAPTER  IV. 

History  and  Rank  of  the  Institution  under  the  Christian 
dispensation. 

1.  When  the  Christian  dispensation  commenced. — 2.  Recognition  and 
observance  of  the  Institution  in  its  Jewish  form  by  Christ  and  his  dis- 
ciples— Observed  in  its  Jewish  form  till  after  Christ's  resurrection — 
Change  of  time  to  be  treated  in  Part  Second.— 3.  Institution  observed 
by  all  Christians  down  to  the  present  time— Ebionites — "  The  Lord's 
Day" — "  Sunday." — 4.  Moral  rank  of  the  Institution  under  the  new 
dispensation — Remark  of  Andrew  Fuller. — 5.  All  the  items  of  the 
Decalogue  raised  to  a  purely  moral  rank  under  the  gospel. — 6.  Church 
and  State  united — Church  and  State  divorced — Stereotyped  patterns — 
Extempore  patterns — Basis  of  general  principles — Col.  ii.  16,  17. — 7. 
Jewish  Sabbath  could  not  pass  over  to  the  new  dispensation. — 8.  Change 
of  time  no  injury  to  the  Institution — May  be  a  great  benefit — The 
Institution  should  have  respect  to  the  work  of  Redemption. — 9.  Old 
dispensation  must  not  ovei-lap  the  new — Institution  stands  higher  and 
stronger  than  ever pp.  54-66 


CONTENTS. 


PART  SECOND. 

^)^t   txmz  Hppropriatib  to  l^c  |nsiUntion. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Time  appropriated  to  the  Institution  under  the  first  or  educa- 
tional DISPENSATION. 

1.  Divisions  of  Subject. — 2.  Necessary  distinction  between  the  Insti- 
tution and  the  time  it  may  occupy. — 3.  Holiness  not  literally 
predicated  of  time. — 4.  Mcde  of  observing  the  Institution  has  been 
changed  three  times. — 5.  Institution  adapted  to  the  Divine  manifesta- 
tions.— 6.  The  day  observed  in  Paradise  and  in  the  early  ages — Reasons — 
Divine  example — great  purposes. — 7.  Ancient  time  of  beginning  and 
ending  days — Svich  reckoning  nonsuited  to  the  race. — 8.  Day  kept  by 
the  Jews. — 9.  Was  the  ancient  reckoning  lost — Not  necessary  to  have 
been  preserved —  Jewish  feature  of  the  Decalogue.  —  10.  Some  par- 
ticulars of  the  three  modes  of  observing  the  Institution  —  Distinc- 
tions  , ..pp.  67-75 


CHAPTER   II. 

Time  appropriated  to  the  Institution  under  the  final  or  redemp- 
tive dispensation. 

1.  Practice  of  Christians. — (a).  2.  Fact  of  the  change  of  day — Christ's 
practice  after  his  resurrection — "  In  eight  days" — "  Forty  days." — 
3.  Practice  of  Apostles  and  first  churches. — 4.  Meauingof  phi'ase  "The 
Lords'  Day"— Apostle  John— Ignatius— 1  Cor.  xvi.  1,  2— Irenfeus— Ter- 
tullian— Martyrs— Justin  Martyr— Theodoret— Prof.  Stuart— Theophi- 
lus —  Dionysius  —  Barnabas  —  Ambrose  —  Augustine  —  Athanasius — 
Eusebius— Neander.  (&).  5.  Change  made  by  the  Authority  of  Christ 
—The  Apostles  his  Legates.— 6.  "  The  Law  and  the  Testimony  — 
7.  Manner  in  which  the  New  Testament  instructs  us.— 8.  Three  reasons 
for  the  change  of  the  day— Testimony  of  Neander.— 9.  How  the  Insti- 
tution now  stands pp.  76-89 


CONTENTS. 


PART  THIRD. 

^^t  Paimcr  of  ^bserfeittg  ilje  Institution. 

CHAPTER   I. 

Different  modes  of  observing  the  Institution  under  the   eaelt 
dispensations. 

1.  Divisions  of  subject. — 2.  The  Institution  made  for  man — Associa- 
ted with  the  Divine  Manifestations — Changes  necessary. — 3.  Manner 
in  which  tlie  Institution  was  observed  in  Eden. — 4.  Manner  of  its 
observance  after  the  Fall — In  patriarchal  ages. — 5.  Mode  of  its  obser- 
vance among  the  Hebrews pp.  90-94 


CHAPTER    II. 

Manner  of  observing  the  Institution  under  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation. 

1.  Practical  part  of  our  subject — Institution  moral  and  binding  on 
all  the  race. — 2.  A  Divine  requisition. — 3.  Our  need  of  the  Institution. 
— 4.  Its  glorious  significancy  as  contemplated  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point.— 5.  We  need  it  as  individuals. — 6.  Need  it  as  families. — 7.  Need 
it  as  communities. — 8.  Testimony  of  observing  men. — 9.  Its  great 
religious  ends. — A  check  to  worldliness — Abstinence  from  secular 
engagements — Example  of  John  Adams. — 10.  Designed  for  religious 
and  spiritual  purposes. — 11.  Reading  and  study  of  the  Sci'iptures. — 
12.  Social  public  worship. — 13.  Prayer  and  praise. — 14.  Works  of 
mercy  and  benevolence — 15.  Preparation  in  thoughts  and  habits  for 
the  services  of  the  everlasting  Sabbath pp.  "94-108 


THE  SABBATH  mSTITUTIOK 


INTRODUCTION. 

1.  The  Divine  Institution  ordained  by  the 
Creator  in  Eden,  and  pronounced  by  the  Saviour 
of  the  world  to  have  been  made  for  '''  man," 
i.  e.  the  race — is  one  of  great  interest. 

We  are  prompted  to  treat  of  it  thoroughly  at 
this  time,  by  several  practical  considerations — (1) 
There  exists  a  lamentable  diversity  of  opinion  and 
practice  in  regard  to  this  Institution  ;  some  holding 
to  the  observance  of  the  seventh  day  of  the  week 
as  Sabbath  time,  or  the  Sabbath  ;  some  regarding 
the  first  day  of  the  week  as  the  proper  time 
appropriated  to  the  Institution;  some  .holding  that 
the  Institution  has  been  utterly  abrogated  ;  and 
some,  as  might  naturally  be  supposed  from  such 
confusion  around  them,  resting  in  no  definite 
views  whatever.  (2)  Everywhere,  in  our  land 
and  in  the  Vv'orld,  this  Institution  is  too  little 
understood  and  observed.  (3)  Even  among 
Christians  it  is  too  slightly  studied  and  defended, 
as  is  evinced  by  the  little  that  is  said  and  written 


10  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

upon  it  of  a  thorough,  philosophical  character, 
(4)  Above  all,  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  Institu- 
tion to  every  man,  to  every  family,  to  the  whole 
world,  involving,  as  it  does,  the  religious  instruc- 
tion and  culture,  the  happiness,  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  every  person  and  every  community, 
demands  that  it  should  be  explained,  adopted  and 
defended.  Indeed,  every  lover  of  truth,  every 
friend  of  man  and  every  servant  of  God,  must 
feel  solicitous  that  this  Divine  Institution  should 
be  rightly  apprehended  and  devoutly  observed. 

2.  That  our  thoughts  may  be  sufficiently  com- 
prehensive, while  at  the  same  time  they  shall  be 
so  explicit  as  to  meet  every  important  point  of 
inquiry,  we  shall  present  the  subject  of 

THE  SABBATH   INSTITUTION 
under  three  general  heads  or  divisions  : — 
I.  The  History  of  the  Institution. 
II.  The  Time  Appropriated  to  the  Institution, 
III.  The  Manner  of  Observing  the  Institution. 
But  before  coming  directly  to  the  discussion  of 
our  subject,  it  may  not  be  improper,  owing  to  the 
common  hasty  mode  of  approaching  and  deciding 
upon  the  matter,  to  offer  a  iQ\Y  prefatory,  caution- 
ary thoughts. 

3.  In  order  to  secure  clear  and  just  views  of  any 
object,  it  is  important  that  we  view  it  from  a  pro- 
per and    commanding   point  of  observation ;    or^ 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

what  is  still  better,  and  as  is  possible  in  most 
cases,  we  should  first  deliberately  survey  the 
object  from  a  distance  on  every  side  of  it,  and 
then  gradually  approach  it  in  our  observations  on 
every  accessible  side.  Thus,  when  we  finally 
stand  upon  the  object  itself,  we  shall  far  better 
realize  its  magnitude,  character  and  relations,  than 
if  we  had  only  partially  observed  it  on  one  of  its 
sides,  or  had  hurriedly  rushed  upon  its  broad 
summit  as  our  only  stand-point.  And  thus  we 
propose  to  examine  the  Sabbath  Institution. 

4.  It  is  a  note-worthy  fact  that  the  Sabbath  In- 
stitution has  been  viewed  from  different  and  iso- 
lated positions  ;  and  this  fact  sufficiently  explains 
the  different  and  often  too  exclusive  estimates  and. 
conclusions  that  have  obtained  in  reference  to  it. 
Some  of  these  positions  have  been  necessarily  dif- 
ferent, while  others  have  been  purely  optional, 
and,  not  a  few,  the  determinations  of  uninformed 
minds. 

Our  first  parents  necessarily  occupied  one  posi- 
tion, the  paradisaical,  in  primitive  and  unclouded 
hght.  The  antediluvians  and  patriarchs  occupied 
another  position,  less  spiritual  and  elevated,  on 
account  of  man's  fall.  The  Jewish  Church  stood 
in  yet  another  position,  to  which  they  were  mira- 
culously raised  and  on  which  they  stood  by  dis- 
tinctive positive  interposition  and  command.  The 
Christian  Church  and  the  Christian  world  occupy 


12  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

another  position  still,  far  higher  and  more  com- 
manding than  the  previous  ones,  enjoying  all  their 
advantages  in  connection  with  new  light  shining 
without  clouds  through  a  moral  and  spiritual  rather 
than  a  positive  disposition  of  the  religious  world. 

5.  Still,  even  in  the  Christian  world,  we  find 
much  diversity  of  specific  position  from  which  the 
Institution  is  surveyed  and  estimated ;  for  with  the 
advantages  of  the  same  general  position  and  light, 
men  differ  in  their  perceptive  powers  and  educa- 
tional biases. 

Some  regard  the  Sabbath  as  an  Institution,  as 
an  appointment  of  God  for  the  religious  improve- 
ment of  the  race — making  a  clear  distinction  be- 
tween the  appointment  or  Institution,  and  the  time 
devoted  to  its  observance.  Others  regard  the 
Sabbath  as  a  particular  day — as  identical  with  a 
given  day  or  measurement  of  time,  and  so  they 
seem  at  least  to  contend  for  time-keeping  rather 
than  for  an  Institution  proper.  The  latter  keep 
the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  reckoning  from  the 
Jewish  Sabbath,  and  after  the  manner  of  the  Jews 
in  beginning  and  ending  their  days  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  stars  ;  while  the  former  appropri- 
ate to  the  Institution  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
reckoning  from  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and 
after  the  usual  manner  of  mankind  in  the  matter 
of  beginning  and  ending  the  days. 

There  are,  indeed,  two  other  classes  deserving 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

mention.  Some  think  that  the  Sabbath  originated 
and  ended  by  positive  divine  command  with  the 
Jewish  nationahty;  and  hence  they  suppose  that 
the  duty  of  its  observance  is  now  a  purely  pru- 
dential consideration,  something  altogether  optional. 
Others  contend  that  it  has  been  authoritatively 
abolished,  and  that  now  there  is  no  such  Institu- 
tion, that  all  days  and  seasons  are  alike  and  to  be 
observed  in  like  manner ;  hence  they  have  no 
Sabbath  at  all. 

Now,  this  diversity  of  views  has  certainly  arisen 
from  the  different  stand-points  from  which  the  In- 
stitution has  been  surveyed.  Some  view  it  from 
a  positive,  others  from  a  moral  stand-point ;  the 
positive  presents  its  Jewish,  the  moral  presents 
its  Christian  aspects.  Some  look  upon  its  obser- 
vance as  a  legally  instituted  duty,  found  only  in 
statute  form  ;  others  regard  its  observance  as  a 
morally  preceptive  obligation,  every  where  found 
in  implied  principles,  as  well  as  in  inspired  prac- 
tice. Though  both  these  classes  agree  in  respect 
to  its  divinely  revealed  authority,  and  its  obligative- 
ness  upon  the  whole  human  family,  since  it  '•'^  was 
made  for  man,"  and  for  man  in  paradise  even,  yet 
the  one  class  hold  it  in  its  Jewish  aspects,  with  the 
old  provincial  time-table,  while  the  other  class  hold 
it  in  its  distinguishing  Christian  adaptations  and 
aspects  with  a  time-table  suited  to  all  zones  and 
nations.  The ^rs^  regard  it  as  simply  commemo- 
o* 


1,4  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

rative  of  the  seventh  day  of  creation,  and  perhaps 
typical  of  heaven,  though  this  last  idea  seem  not 
connected  with  the  iirst ;  the  second  regard  it  as 
monumental  of  the  week  and  the  work  of  creation, 
also  commemorative  of  man's  redemption  evidenced 
in  Christ's  resurrection,  and  so  typical  of  the  rest 
of  heaven  purchased  by  the  conquest  of  death. 

The  second  of  these  positions  is  the  one  which 
we  occupy,  since  it  both  comports  with  the  genius 
and  history  of  the  Institution,  and  necessarily 
grows  out  of  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Christian 
dispensation,  as  we  shall  hereafter  take  pains  to 
show. 

6.  It  may  be  proper  here  to  observe,  that  there 
is  one  marked  feature  of  the  Divine  Government 
which  we  do  well  to  study,  and  always  bear  in 
mind  when  we  are  considering  God's  appoint- 
ments ;  and  which  throvv's  important  light  upon  our 
study  of  the  history  of  the  Sabbath  Institution,  and 
the  different  changes  that  have  been  appointed  in 
reference  to  it.  We  allude  to  the  well  known 
distinction,  and  yet  the  intended  ultimate  connec- 
tion between  what,  in  the  Divine  Government,  is 
positive  and  what  is  moral.  Some  thing's  are 
positive,  and  some  things  are  moral.  And  the 
same  thing  may  at  one  time  be  positive  in  form, 
while  at  a  subsequent  time  it  may  be  purely  moral. 
The  order  of  the  Divine  Government  is  from  posi 
tive  to  moral. 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

7.  But  perhaps  I  can  best  present  this  feature 
by  an  analogy  from  a  supposed  case,  that  will 
easily  be  understood, 

Take  the  case  of  a  father  wishing  to  train  up 
his  son  to  self-control,  extensive  knowledge,  and 
wide  responsibilities, — to  such  views,  feelings, 
principles  and  habits  as  shall  qualify  him  for  the 
widest  usefulness,  the  noblest  enjoyments,  the 
most  active  responsibilities  and  the  loftiest  self- 
achieved  destiny ;  how  does  the  parent  proceed  in 
this  work  ? 

He  would  direct  his  efforts  to  two  inter-related 
things:  (1)  the  inculcation  of  knowledge;  and  (2), 
the  formation  of  a  strong  moral  character ;  that  is, 
the  conjoined  intellectual  and  moral  education  of 
the  child.  And  throughout  this  whole  process  of 
training,  the  requirem.ents  of  the  father  and  the 
obedience  of  the  son  must  be  based  upon  the  dis- 
tinction, and  yet  the  final  connection  between  v/hat 
is  positive  and  what  is  moral — between  ''v/hat  is 
right  because  it  is  appointed  and  what  is  appointed 
because  it  is  right.  At  first,  with  the  child  every- 
thing would  be  positive,  though  with  the  design  of 
becoming  finally  moral.  The  principles  of  what 
is  moral,  though  they  admit  of  that  variety  in  form 
and  manner  which  necessarily  follows  the  varying 
and  modifying  of  relations  and  conditions,  are  yet 
of  perpetual  obligation  ;  while  the  things  that  are 
positive  may  be  binding  at  one  time  and  utterly 


16  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

abolished  at  another.  The  moral  obligation  re- 
quires the  child  to  obey  the  parent  in  all  things  ; 
the  positive  command  requires  the  child  to  obey 
the  parent  in  a  particular  instance  and  in  a  parti- 
cular way,  which,  indeed,  may  never  again  recur. 
In  the  process  of  training,  the  positive  precedes 
the  moral,  and  makes  way  for  it. 

In  the  intellectual  training  of  the  child  the  father 
would  begin  with  elementary  truths  and  proceed 
gradually  to  those  that  were  higher,  always  plac- 
ing the  simple  before  the  complex,  the  easy  before 
the  abstruse,  making  each  advance  the  stepping- 
stone  to  a  further  elevation.  He  would  follow  the 
ordained  law  of  human  nature,  that  of  develop- 
ment and  progress,  and  while  touching  and  stimu- 
lating, yet  not  violating  the  principle  of  self-action 
in  the  child,  would  constantly  seek  to  strengthen 
and  enlarge  that  principle,  having  respect  all  along 
to  the  child's  attainable  majority,  manhood  and 
maturity. 

In  forming  the  moral  character  of  the  child  in 
conjunction  with  hisintellectual  training,  the  father 
would  pursue  nearly  the  same  course,  only  making 
it  more  rigid  and  extensive.  Beginning  witli  the 
elementary  rules  of  moral  conduct,  he  would  gra- 
dually proceed  to  such  as  were  higher — at  each 
step  adapting  his  rules,  given  in  a  positive  form, 
to  the  child's  age,  state  and  relations.  He  would 
also  employ  such  illustrations  and  analogies,  such 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

facts  and  experiments,  as  would  fix  the  precepts 
in  the  mind,  impress  the  heart  and  conscience,  and 
thus  further  the  great  design  of  moral  education. 
Net  unlikel}^  he  might  from  lime  to  time  institute 
certain  experiments  with  his  son  to  facilitate  this 
education.  He  would  likewise  enforce  all  the 
lessons  of  duty  with  simple  and  explicit  authority. 
And  be  it  specially  remarked,  at  first  all  the  re- 
quirements would  be  positive,  and  their  authority 
would  be  maintained,  not  upon  the  grounds  of 
reason,  for  these  the  child  could  not  as  yet  appre- 
ciate, but  upon  the  ground  of  simple  command  and 
purposely  instituted  rewards  and  punishments. 
After  this  general  manner  as  best  suited  to  the 
child's  state,  he  would  inculcate  the  ideas  of  right 
and  wrong,  and  impress,  mould  and  direct  all  the 
moral  faculties.  With  positive,  absolute  and  in- 
violate rules,  h^  would  gradually  train  up  his  son, 
revealing  to  him  the  reason  of  things  and  their 
moral  bearings  with  their  ultimate  results,  as  he 
should  become  capable  of  understanding  and  adopt- 
ing them.  And  be  it  remembered,  the  rules  that 
were  at  first  positive  in  form  would  gradually 
become  moral. 

Every  wise  father  would  follow  this  course  of 
tuition  and  training,  beginning  with  what  was  ele- 
mentary in  a  positive  form,  though  moral  in  essence, 
and  enforcing  the  moral  by  the  positive  until  the 
child  should  perceive  and  feel  the  moral  as  such, 


18  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

and  so  appreciate  and  obey  the  parental  government 
on  the  highest  p-rounds,  recognisincr  the  moral  as 
being  much  more  obligatory  if  possible  than  what 
was  simply  and  only  positive.  The  law  of  the 
whole  course  would  be  that  of  development  and 
proo;ress,  from  lower  to  higher,  from  particular  to 
genera],  from  positive  to  moral,  enlarging  the  capa- 
city, consciousness,  and  self-activity  of  the  child 
with  respect  to  the  greatest  power,  freedom,  useful- 
ness and  efficiency. 

Now  may  not  this  suppositive  case  afford  by 
way  of  analogy  an  illustration  of  the  method  which 
God  has  actually  appointed  and  pursued  in  instruct- 
ing, training  disciplining  generic  man — the  human 
family.  He  has  created  the  race  subject  to  a  law 
of  progress  in  knowledge  and  in  grace.  In  his 
dispensations  to  mankind  he  has  followed  this  law, 
by  giving  to  the  world  in  the  first  ages  certain 
positive  commands  which  in  due  time  became 
purely  moral,  as  Ave  shall  hereafter  have  occasion 
to  prove, 

And  our  suppositive  case  affords  an  easy,  natural, 
necessary  key  to  the  history  of  the  Sabbath  Insti- 
tution, an  institution  made  for  man — the  race.  >  The 
general  laws  presented  in  the  above  analogy  will 
serve  to  explain  the  changes — changes  in  the  mode 
of  observing,  and  the  change  of  time  appropriated 

to  the  Institution of  which  we  shall  be  called  to 

speak  in  the  treatment  of  our  subject. 


PAKT     FIKST 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  INSTITUTION. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ORIGIN    OF   THE   INSTITUTIOX,    AND    ITS    HISTOEY    DURING 
THE   ANTEDILUVIAN    AND    PATKIARCHAL    AGES. 

1.  The  history  of  the  Sabbath  Institution  may 
be  most  profitably  studied  by  dividing  it  into  four 
periods  or  parts;  (1)  The  origin  of  the  Institution 
and  its  history  during  the  antediluvian  and  patri- 
archal ages  ;  ( 2  ^  The  restoration  of  the  Institu- 
tion to  the  Israelites  on  their  emancipation  from 
Egypt;  (3)  The  incorporation  of  the  Institution 
into  the  politico  religious  code  of  the  Jews ;  ( 4 ) 
The  history  and  rank  of  the  Institution  under  the 
Christian  dispensation. 

2.  Following  this  natural  historic  order  we  are  in 
the  first  place  to  consider, 

The  origin  of  the  Institution,  and  its  history 
during  the  antediluvian  and  patriarchal  ages. 

3.  The  record  of  the  origin  of  the  Institution  is 
found  in  Gen.  ii.  2.  3 :  ^^  And  on  the  seventh  day 
God  ended  his  work  which  he  had  made  and  he 
rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which 


20  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

he  had  made  !  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day 
and  sanctified  it,  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested 
from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made." 
Thus  reads  the  original  date  of  the  Institution. 
Nor  does  it  matter  at  all  as  to  the  origin  of  the  In- 
stitution or  the  proportional  measure  of  time  appro- 
priated to  it  whether  the  word  '^day"  in  this 
record  is  to  be  understood  as  a  ^'  literal  day"  or  a 
"period." 

4.  The  word  "sabbath"  signifies  cessation  ;  rest ; 
it  is  derived  from  the  Hebrew  verb,  to  cease;  to  rest. 
God  rested  and  so  established  by  his  own  example 
and  authority  the  sabbath  or  rest— a  season  for  reli- 
gious review,  study  and  contemplation.  He  blessed 
and  sanctified  the  appointment  for  man  as  a  season 
of  rest  for  worship.  He  appointed  the  Institution 
to  be  a  source  of  blessings,  and  required,  after  his 
example,  that  it  should  be  sanctified  or  set  apart 
for  sacred  and  holy  purposes. 

5.  Thus  the  Institution  being  made  for  man  was 
coeval  with  his  creation  :  and  man's  first  day  was 
a  day  of  religious  study,  of  praise  and  hol}^  duties. 
As  this  was  before  man's  apostacy,  we  learn  that 
even  in  a  state  of  sinlessness  man  needed  t'his  In- 
stitution. Since  he  was  a  free  moral  agent,  a  proba- 
tioner, a  subject  of  the  divine  government  exposed 
to  temptation,  a  candidate  for  immortality,  he 
needed  an  appointment  oft-recurring  in  which  he 
should  separate  himself  from  common  worldly  em- 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  21 

ployments,  devoutly  remembering  the  Creator  and 
Ruler,  reverently  contemplating  his  works  and  ren- 
dering to  him  for  all  his  bounteous  goodness  the 
tribute  of  thankful  praise.  So  man  was  to  keep 
the  Lord  always  before  bis  face. 

6.  The  time  appointed  to  the  Institution  was  of 
course  wholly  subsidiary  to  the  objects  of  the  Insti- 
tution :  it  was  merely  the  platform  on  which  the 
Institution  stood,  and  not  the  Institution  itself;  which 
platform  might  in  following  ages  be  enlarged  and 
elevated  by  new  efforts  and  associations  of  the 
divine  mind  and  divine  procedure,  as  has  actually 
been  the  case,  without  at  all  impairing  the  Institu- 
tion itself.  Indeed  the  Institution  might  have  ex- 
isted in  all  its  force  and  integrity  altogether  apart 
from  the  particular  division  of  time  on  which  it 
was  placed,  had  God  so  chosen — say  on  a  division  of 
sixes,  eighths  or  fives  in  regard  to  days.  Neither  the 
day  nor  the  division  of  days  was  the  Institution,  but 
merely  the  platform  on  which  God  in  his  wisdom 
chose  to  set  the  Institution.  Nor  was  the  bodily 
rest  which  was  positively  eftjoined  the  Institution  : 
the  rest  was  only  preparatory  and  subsidiary  to  the 
spiritual  intent  and  religious  purposes  of  the  ap- 
pointment. 

7.  Nor  is  it  material  in  our  argument  whether 
the  word  ^' days"  in  Genesis,  should  be  understood 
as  '^literal  days'''  as  many  strenuously  contend,  or 
'*periods^^  of  indefinite  length,  as  others  are  con- 

3 


22  TOE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

fident  that  they  can  show.     If  we  are  to  understand 
them  as  <•'■  literal  days'''  there  of  course  can  be  no 
difficuli}'-.     Nor  are  we  able  to  see  any  serious  diffi» 
culty  if  we  understand  them  as  '^ periods.'''     To 
use  the  language  of  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
and  enlightened  writers  of  the  present  age; — "It 
has   been    urged  that   this   scheme  of   periods  is 
irreconcilable  with  that  divine  season  for  the  Insti- 
tution of  the  Sabbath  which  he  who  appointed  the 
day  of  old,  has  in  his  goodness  vouchsafed  to  man. 
I   have  failed  to  see  any  force  in  the   objection, 
God,  the  Creator,  who  wrought  during  six  periods, 
rested  during  the  seventh  period;   and  as  we  have 
no  evidence  v/hatsoever  that  he  re-commenced  his 
work  of  creation — as  on  the  contrary,  m.an  seems 
to  be  the  last  formed   of  creatures — God  ma}^  be 
resting  still.     The  presumption  is  strong  that  his 
sabbath  is  an  extended  period,  not  a  natural  day, 
and  that  the  w^ork  of  redemption  is  his  sabbath-day's 
work.     And  so  I  cannot  see  that  it  in  the  least  in- 
terferes with  the  integrity  of  the  reason  rendered, 
to  fead  it  as  follows  : — work  during  six  periods, 
and  rest  on  the  seventh  :  for  in  six  periods  the  Lord 
created   the  heavens  and   the   earth,  and'  on   the 
seventh  period  He  rested.     The  divine  periods  may 
have  been  very   great,  the   human   periods   very 
small ;    just  as  a  vast  continent  or  the   huge  earth 
itself  is   very  great,  and  a  map   or  geographical 
globe  very  sm.all ;  but  if,  in  the  map  or  globe,  the 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY.  23 

proportions  be  faithfully  maintained,  and  the  scale, 
though  a  minute,  be  true  in  all  its  parts  and  appli- 
cations, we  pronounce  the  map  or  globe,  notwith- 
standing the  smallness  of  its  size,  a  faithful  copy. 
Were  man's  sabbath  to  be  kept  as  enjoined,  and  in 
the  divine  proportions,  it  would  scarcely  interfere 
with  the  logic  of  the  reason  annexed  to  the  fourth 
commandment,  though  in  this  matter,  as  in  all 
others  in  which  man  can  be  an  imitator  of  God,  the 
imitation  should  be  a  miniature  one." — The  Two 
Records.      By  Hugh  Miller. 

8.  Our  first  parents  in  Eden,  though  they  re- 
ceived both  the  Institution  and  its  time  in  the  form 
of  positive  command,  as  every  new  Institution 
must  be  received,  doubtless  immediately  appre- 
hended it  as  a  moral  requisition  as  an  appointment 
most  fitting  and  happy.  They  instantly  recognised 
its  miOral  character  as  giving  explanation  and  weight 
to  its  positive  aspect :  for,  as  yet,  while  they  had 
not  been  blinded  and  stupified  by  sin,  they  could 
readily  apprehend  the  connection  and  point  of  dis- 
tinction between  what  was  moral  and  what  was 
positive — which  fallen  man  is  so  slow  to  perceive, 
and  hence  needs  that  rigid  and  protracted  training 
under  positive  requisitions  to  which,  during  his 
history,  God  has  subjected  him. 

9.  Of  the  observance  of  the  Institution  during 
the  antediluvian  and  patriarchal  periods  we  need 
to  speak  somewhat  particularly,  since  some  have 


24  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

presumed  to  doubt  whether  during  these  periods  it 
was  really  known.  We  do  well  to  recollect  that 
the  history  of  these  periods,  of  about  two  thousand 
five  hundred  years,  is  condensed  into  a  single  book 
and  a  few  chapters  of  another;  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  which  so  brief  record  is  devoted  to  the 
history  of  Abraham  and  his  descendants.  So  we 
must  not  expect  that  any  one  thing  or  any  one 
Institution,  be  it  marriage,  sacrifices,  circumcision, 
public  worship  or  the  Sabbath  Institution  would 
be  consecutively  or  prominently  treated.  And  it 
may  be  noticed  that  this  Institution  is  mentioned 
only  five  times  in  all  those  parts  of  the  Scriptures, 
both  prophetic  and  historic,  which  pertain  to  the 
period  beginning  v/ith  the  time  of  Moses  and 
reaching  to  the  return  from  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity— a  period  of  one  thousand  years.  And  in 
the  histories  of  Joshua,  of  the  Judges,  of  Samuel, 
and  of  Saul — a  period  of  about  five  hundred  ^^ears — 
this  Institution  is  not  mentioned  once.  It  might 
therefore  be  asked,  had  the  Jews  no  Sabbath  ? 
We  know  they  had.  Because  therefore  so  little  is 
said  in  the  book  of  Genesis  upon  the  subject  of  this 
Institution,  is  it  at  all  reasonable  to  suppose,  as  some 
have  done,  that  the  Institution  was  then  unknown? 
As  well  might  we  suppose  that  Noah  preached  no 
particular  doctrine,  because  we  have  no  record  of 
his  sermons.  Or  as  well  might  we  conjecture  that 
the  Jews  had  no  Sabbath  from  Joshua  to  David — 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  25 

five  hundred  years — because  no  record  is  made  of  it ; 
or  that  they  were  without  circumcision  from  Joshua 
to  Jeremiah — eight  hundred  years — because  no 
mention  is  made  of  that. 

But  it  is  not  true,  as  some  have  presumed  to 
assert,  that  there  is  no  mention  of  this  Institution 
during  the  periods  in  question.  In  the  first  place, 
there  stands  the  fuli  explicit  historical  fact  of  the 
origin  and  object  of  the  Institution  in  Gen.  ii.  2,  3, 
upon  which  we  have  already  spoken.  And  tije 
Scriptures  of  after  times,  where  they  speak  of  the 
Institution,  refer  for  its  origin  and  authority  to 
the  above-mentioned  record.  And  as  the  Insti- 
tution was  ordained  for  man — the  race — as  much 
as  was  any  rehgious  duty,  since  it  belonged  to  an 
estabhshed  relation  of  man  to  God,  it  pertained  as 
much  to  the  antediluvian  and  patriarchal  age  as 
to  any  other.  And  it  was  doubtless  observed  in 
those  early  ages  by  all  that  feared  God,  vWth  great 
punctiliousness,  since  with  it,  as  a  part  of  its 
manner  of  observance,  was  connected  the  duty  of 
offering  sacrifices — sometimes  termed  *<  feasts  of 
the  Lord" — the  original  appointment  of  w-hich  is 
nowhere  specified  in  the  history  referred  to.  These 
sacrifices,  with  other  duties,  such  as  pubhc  prayer 
and  praise,  constituted  the  regular  Sabbath  services, 
for  the  performance  of  which  duties  none  will 
doubt  there  were  express  divine  appointments, 
though  they  are  not  mentioned. 
3* 


26  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

10.  Indeed,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  that  in  those 
early  times  men  were  accustomed  to  meet  regularly 
at  stated  times  for  social  public  religious  worship, 
for  which  end  they  certainly  needed  the  Sabbath 
Institution.  The  first  distinct  record  of  social 
religious  worship,  though  it  could  not  have  been 
the  first  that  occurred,  is  found  in  Gen.  iv.  3,  4 ; 
"in  process  of  time,"  or  literally  "^  at  the  end  of 
days,^^  Cain  and  Abel  brought  their  respective 
offerings  before  the  Lord.  Here  a  certain  measure 
of  days  is  distinctly  mentioned.  What  was  that 
measure  of  days  ?  It  appears  that  some  measure 
w^as  established.  And  what  could  that  be  but  the 
Sabbath  ?  No  other  has  been  previously  men- 
tioned. The  next  instance  of  social  public  wor- 
ship is  in  Gen.  iv.  26 :  "  Then  began  men  to  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord."  This  undoubtedly 
refers  to  the  general  or  more  prevalent  establish- 
ment of  that  public  worship  which  hitherto  might 
have  been  confined  to  families. 

And  throughout  the  book  of  Genesis  we  find 
that  wherever  the  patriarchs  pitched  their  tents, 
with  a  view  of  remaining  for  any  length  of  time, 
they  invariably  erected  altars  for  social  public  wor- 
ship. This  worship  belonged  to  the  Sabbath  Insti- 
tution. When  Noah  came  out  of  the  ark,  Gen. 
viii.  20,  he  "builded  an  altar  unto  the  Lord." 
When  Abraham  entered  Canaan,  Gen.  xii.  7, 
"  there  builded  he  an  altar  unto  the  Lord,  who 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  27 

appeared  unto  him  ;"  and  v.  8,  when  he  ^^  pitched 
his  tent,"  "on  the  east  of  Bethel,"  ^Uhere  he 
builded  an  akar  unto  the  Lord."  On  his  return 
from  Egypt,  Gen.  xiii.  3,  4,  ^^with  his  wife  and 
all  that  he  had,  and  Lot  with  him,"  he  came  "to 
Bethel,  unto  the  place  of  the  altar  which  he  had 
made  there  at  the  first,  and  there  he  called  on  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  When  he  separated  from 
Lot,  V.  18,  "  he  removed  his  tent  and  came  and 
dwelt  in  the  plain  of  Mamre,  which  is  in  Hebron, 
and  built  there  an  altar  unto  the  Lord."  And 
subsequently  he  observed  public  religious  wor- 
ship, (Gen.  xxi.  33,)  "  in  Beersheba,  and  called 
there  on  the  name  of  the  Lord,  the  everlasting 
God."  Now,  why  were  these  altars,  sacrifices 
and  prayers  ?  Where  is  the  specific  record  of 
their  appointment  ?  Was  such  a  record  necess- 
sary  ?  And  how  often  were  they  attended  to  ? 
Were  they  not  a  part  of  Sabbath  services  ? 

When  Isaac  "dwelt  in  Gerar,"  (Gen.xxvi.)  25, 
'^  he  builded  an  altar  there  and  called  upon  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  When  Jacob  "  pitched  his 
tent  before  Shalem,  (Gen.  xxxiii.  18,  20,)  "he 
erected  there  an  altar,  and  called  it  God,  the  God 
of  Israel."  And  Jacob  and  all  his  family  were 
commanded,  (Gen.  xxxv.  1-7,)  '^  Arise,  go  up  to 
Bethel,  and  dwell  there,  and  make  there  an  altar 
unto  God ;"  for  they  had  polluted  themselves  by 
idolatry  ;  and  they  did  as  they  were  commanded  ; 


28  THE    SABBATH  INSTITUTION. 

and  Jacob  "  built  there  an  altar,  and  called  the 
place  El-bethel." 

When  Jacob  took  up  his  journey  with  his 
family  to  go  down  into  Egypt  to  see  Joseph,  he 
*^came  to  Beersheba,  (Gen.  xlvi.  1,)  that  long 
established  place  of  worship,  and  offered  sacrifices 
unto  the  God  of  his  father  Isaac." 

Now,  the  above  instances  found  in  the  brief 
record,  are  quite  sufficient  to  establish  the  fact  of 
regular  social  public  worship  among  the  patriarchs 
and  their  large  famihes  or  tribes  ;  for  their  fami- 
lies, including  servants,  laborers  and  attendants, 
owned  and  hired,  constituted  no  small  communi- 
ties, or  tribes,  and  it  was  specially  for  the  benefit 
of  these  households  or  communities  that  these 
altars  were  erected  and  the  public  worship  con- 
ducted. These  all  required  the  Sabbath  Institution. 

11.  And  throughout  the  periods  of  which  we 
are  speaking,  as  well  as  afterwards,  their  religious 
services  and  arrangements  bore  the  impress  of 
sevens,  and  hence  are  to  be  considered  in  this 
relpect  also  as  so  many  mementoes  of  time,  being 
regularly  reckoned  by  weeks,  and  therefore  proofs  of 
the  Sabbath  Institution.  When  Noah  was  abbut  to 
go  into  the  ark,  God  commanded,  (Gen.  vii.  2:) 
<^  Of  every  clean  beast  thou  shalt  take  to  thee  by 
sevens."  We  learn  that  mourning  was  observed 
for  "seven  days,"  as  in  the  case  of  Jacob,  and  also 
of  Job's  friends.  And  in  later  times  we  find  almcst 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  29 

every  thing  had  the  impress  of  sevens,  so  that  seven 
has  always  been  regarded  as  a  sacred  number. 

But  we  have  also  direct  evidence  that  their 
time  was  reckoned  by  a  division  into  weeks. 
When  God  threatened  the  flood,  the  language  is, 
I'Gen.  vii.  4  :)  "  for  yet  seven  days,"  or  literally, 
'■'after  days  yet  seven,""  '^and  I  will  cause  it  to 
rain."  When  all  was  ready  for  the  dread  catas- 
trophe, (Gen.  vii.  10  :)  ''  it  came  to  pass  after  seven 
days,"  or  literally,  "  after  a  heptade  of  days,''^ 
^^that  the  waters  of  the  flood  were  upon  the  earth." 
When  Noah  sent  out  the  dove,  and  she  returned, 
(Gen.  viii.  10:)  "he  staid  yet  other  seven  daj'-s," 
or  literally,  ''he  waited  yet  a  heptade  of  days," 
and  sent  her  out  again.  And  when  she  returned 
the  second  time,  "he  staid  yet  another  seven 
days,"  or  literally,  "a  heptade  of  days,^'  "and 
sent  her  out  again."  When  Jacob  negotiated  for 
his  wife,  the  stipulation  was  in  these  words,  (Gen. 
xxix.  27,  28:)  ^'fulfil  her  week;''  "and  Jacob  did 
so,  and  fulfilled  her  tveck.^'  True,  here  the  word 
"  week"  is  used  in  a  figurative  sense,  meaning  a 
week  of  years  or  seven  years  ;  but  the  figurative 
sense  must  have  arisen  from  a  literal  sense  that 
existed.  When  Jacob  died,  and  Joseph,  with  his 
brethren,  went  up  to  the  burial.  Gen.  1.  1  :  "he 
made  a  mourning  for  his  father  seven  days." 

12.  And  now,  how  came  this  division  of  time  so 
general,  regular,  and  famihar  ?     It  certainly  was 


30  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

not  suggested  by  anything  in  nature ;  it  was  not  a 
division  naturally  marked  out  as  are  days,  months 
— "new  moons  of  days/'  CGen.  xxix.  14  ;  Num. 
xi.  20,  21 ;) — and  years.  How  came  this  division, 
therefore  ?  What  first  originated  it  ?  What  kept 
it  in  use  ?  To  these  questions  no  credible  answer 
can  be  given,  except  this,  that  it  originated  with 
the  Sabbath  Institution,  and  was  perpetuated  by 
it.  With  this  answer  all  is  exphcable  ;  without 
it  all  is  mysterious. 

But  we  have  said  quite  enough  in  vindication  of 
the  Institution  during  these  early  ages,  though 
more  might  be  added.  We  have  spoken  at  such 
length  because  some  in  their  opposition  to  this 
Institution  have  endeavored  to  deny  that  it  was 
known  in  the  first  ages — thus  laboring  to  rank  it  as 
a  merely  Jewish  institute  :  though  such  an  attempt 
is  a  palpable  denial  of  Christ's  declaration  that "  the 
Sabbath  is  made  for  man" — for  the  religious  benefit 
and  improvement  of  the  whole  race. 

Thus  far  w^e  have  traced  the  history  of  the  Insti- 
tution from  its  original  appointment  in  the  garden 
of  Eden  down  through  the  antediluvian  and 
patriarchal  ages,  till  the  descendants  of  Jacob  are 
found  in  Egypt,  from  which  they  are  to  be  called 
out  as  a  peculiar  people  for  the  further  manifesta- 
tion of  Gud  to  the  world. 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    IIISTORY  31 


CHAPTER    II. 

RESTORATION    OF   THE   INSTITUTION   TO   THE   ISRAELITES 
ON    THEIR   EMANCIPATION   FROM    EGYPT.     . 

In  accordance  with  our  proposed  order  of  inves» 
ligation,  which  is  the  natural  historic  order,  we 
now  come  to  consider : 

The  restoration  of  the  Institution  to  the  Israel- 
ites on   their  emancipation  from  Egypt. 

1.  We  speak  of  its  restoration  to  the  Jews, 
because,  we  think  it  clear,  from  the  history  given 
us,  that  the  Institution  had  been  lost,  or  forcibly 
torn  away  from  them,  during  their  bondage  ;  and 
because  some  writers  ignorant  of  this  fact,  have 
thought  that  the  mention  of  it  in  Ex.  xvi.,  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  aftervv'ards  alluded  to  in  con- 
nection with  the  deliverance,  offered  evidence  that 
it  was  now  for  the  first  time  established,  and  hence 
that  it  was  a  peculiarly  Jewish  Institution  in  its 
whole  history  and  design.  Now  we  contend  that 
all  the  facts  and  allusions  in  the  case  are  naturally 
and  clearly  explicable  only  on  the  ground  that  the 
Institution  had  been  forcibly  destroyed  by  the 
Egyptian  pov/er,  and  was  now  by  divine  interpo- 
sition restored  to  the  emancipated  Israelites. 

2.  The  duration  of  the  bondage  cannot  be  deter- 
mined.    From  the  time  of  its  first  announcement 


32  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

to  Abram  to  its  expiration  was  about  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years  ;  but  its  actual  beginning-  was 
after  the  death  of  Joseph.  The  nature  of  this 
Londage  was  very  severe,  not  only  in  respect  to 
physical  toil  and  privations,  but  especially  in  its 
religious  enmities,  oppressions  and  cruelties  tend- 
ing to  the  deepest  mental  and  moral  imbecility, 
degradation  and  corruption ;  and  this  was  what 
more  particularly  elicited  the  divine  judgments  on 
the  Egyptians,  and  the  divine  interventions  for  the 
seed  of  Abraham.  As  the  bondage,  beginning 
immediately  after  the  days  of  Joseph,  gradually 
increased,  and  the  enslaved  were  scattered  from 
Goshen  over  Egypt,  and  sorely  tasked  in  building 
the  costly  Egyptian  defences  and  treasure  cities, 
they  were  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  observing 
the  Sabbath  Institution,  and  so  of  maintaining  their 
ancient  customary  divinely  appointed  sacrifices 
and  services.  Indeed,  it  will  appear  certain,  as 
w^e  study  the  record,  that  they  were  finally,  if  not 
immediatel}^,  strictly  forbidden  to  observe  the  Insti- 
tution, and  offer  their  sacrifices,  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  were  inseparably  connected  with  the 
Institution.  And  it  may  be  observed,  thatHo  any 
people  who  have  no  written  language,  all  their 
religious  culture  and  privileges  must  stand  or  fall 
wnth  this  Institution.  Now  the  animals  which  the 
Israelites  offered  in  sacrifice,  such  as  the  bull,  the 
heifer,  the   ram,  the  lamb,  and  the   he-goat,  were 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY.  33 


a  ponion  of  the  gods  of  the  Egyptians.  The 
Egyptians,  therefore,  would  peremptorily  for- 
bid this  sacrifice  as  a  sacrilegious  custom,  among 
their  slaves  ;  they  would  not  suffer  their  slaves  to 
slay  and  burn  their  gods ;  and  they  would  of 
course  prohibit  the  observance  of  the  Institution 
with  which  these  sacrifices  stood  connected,  and 
of  which,  indeed,  they  formed  a  conspicuous  part. 

In  this  way  the  Jews  lost  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  Institution,  which,  among  them  afterwards, 
as  undoubtedly  among  their  fathers,  was  termed 
''  the  feast  of  the  Lord  ;"  that  is,  the  day  of  sacri- 
fice. And  in  losing  the  observance  of  the  Institu- 
tion, they  necessarily  lost  all  their  religious  rites  ; 
and  not  improbably  during  their  long  and  deep 
oppression  they  lost  even  the  custom  of  reckoning 
their  time  by  weeks,  and  adopted  the  custom  from 
the  Egyptians  of  reckoning  their  time  by  "moons," 
which  reckoning  we  find  them  in  their  after  history 
so  frequently  employing. 

This  view  is  certainly  sustained  by  the  divine 
record.  God  saw  the  deep  oppression  of  the 
children  of  Abraham,  his  chosen  people,  and 
sovereignly  interposed  for  their  deliverance.  His 
command  to  Pharaoh,  through  Moses  and  Aaron, 
was,  (Ex.  V.  1 :)  "  Let  my  people  go,  that  they  may 
hold  a  feast  unto  me  in  the  wilderness  :"  as  much 
as  to  say,  Let  them  go  that  they  may  offer  to  me  my 
appointed  sacrifices  in  the  wilderness,  since  here 
4 


84  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

in  Egypt  they  are  forbidden  to  do  this.  And 
Pharaoh  said,  '^V/ho  is  the  Lord,  that  I  should 
obey  his  voice  to  let  Israel  go?  I  know  not  the 
Lord,  neither,  will  I  let  Israel  go."  Pharaoh's 
answer  evinces  the  fact  that  the  name  and  wor- 
ship of  Jehovah  was  now  unknown  in  the  land,  so 
long  had  that  worship  been  prohibited.  Even  the 
Israelites  themselves  had  lost  the  name  of  Jeho- 
vah :  for  v/hen  God  commissioned  Moses  to  go 
unto  them,  (Ex.  iii.  13:)  "Moses  said  unto  God, 
Behold,  when  I  come  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  shall  say  unto  them,  the  God  of  your  fathers 
hath  sent  me  unto  you  :  and  they  shall  say  to  me, 
What  is  his  name?  what  shall  I  say  unto  them?" 
So  now  the  great  question  first  to  be  settled  before 
both  the  Egyptians  and  the  Israehtes  was,  '^  TPlio 
is  the  Lord  ?'^  Who  is  the  Ruler  of  the  world 
and  of  mankind  t  for  this  knowledge  was  now  lost. 
Who  shall  be  obeyed,  the  God  of  Jacob,  or  the 
gods  of  Egypt? 

3.  This  important  controversy  was  decided  by 
the  plagues,  and  this  is  the  only  manner  in  which 
the  visitation  of  the  plagues  can  be  explained. 
Each  plague  v/as  aimed  against  certain  >of  the 
Egyptian  gods,  until  they  all  were  shown  to  be  no 
gods,  and  their  priests  impostors  and  deceivers. 

To  the  Egyptians  the  river  Nile  was  sacred, 
and  it  abounded  with  river-gods ;  and  blood  was 
an  object  of  great  abhorrence.     The  first  plague 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY.  35 

turned  the  sacred  river  into  blood.  So  all  these 
gods  were  confounded. 

Frogs,  also,  were  sacred  among  the  Egyptians; 
and  they  abominated  uncleanness.  The  second 
plague  filled  the  land  with  frogs,  which  died,  and 
"they  gathered  them  together  in  heaps,  and  the 
land  stank." 

Lice  were  objects  of  the  greatest  detestation, 
and  were  regarded  as  specially  profaning  their 
priests  and  temples.  By  the  third  plague,  ^^all 
the  dust  of  the  land  became  lice,"  and  so  the 
greatest  contempt  was  poured  on  every  priest  and 
every  altar. 

Their  favorite  gods  were  the  bull,  the  heifer, 
the  ram,  the  he-goat.  By  the  fifth  plague,  which 
was  "a  very  grievous  murrain,"  "all  the  cattle 
of  Egypt  died,"  "but  of  the  cattle  of  the  children 
of  Israel  died  not  one." 

The  Egyptians  also  adored  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars — the  fountains  of  light.  By  the  ninth  plague, 
which  brought  ^'^  darkness  over  all  the  land  for 
three  days,"  these,  their  supposed  divinities,  were 
covered  with  "darkness  that  might  be  felt." 

So  it  was  in  substance  with  all  the  plagues. 
Says  God  :  "  Yea,  against  all  the  gods  of  Egypt 
I  will  execute  judgment;  I  am  the  Lord."  The 
plagues  were  preparatory  to  the  deliverance,  by 
revealing  the  Name  and  Power  and  Prerogatives 
of  the  only  Living  and  True  God,  the  1  AM. 


36  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTIO.  . 

And  these  miracles  were  necessary  for  the  con- 
viction and  instruction  of  both  the  oppressor  and 
the  oppressed.  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians  never 
knew  God.  The  Israehtes  had  now  forgotten  him, 
so  that  Aaron  had  to  work  "  signs  in  the  sight  of 
the  people,"  and  Moses  complained  ^^the  children 
of  Israel  have  not  hearkened  unto  me." 

4.  That  the  restoration  of  the  Sabbath  Institu- 
tion was  one  of  the  prime  ends  to  be  secured  by 
the  deliverance,  will  very  readily  appear.  The 
first  requisition  made  of  Pharaoh  was  in  these 
words  :  ^''Let  my  people  go  that  they  may  hold  a 
feast  unto  me  in  the  wilderness."  Upon  Pharaoh's 
refusal,  the  demand  was  repeated  in  these  words : 
^^Let  us  go,  we  pray  thee,  three  days'  journey  into 
the  desert,  and  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord  our  God." 
So  \h.e  feast  was  a  ceremony  of  sacrifices,  the  same 
doubtless  as  was  anciently  practiced  b}^  their  fathers 
and  the  early  patriarchs.  But  the  king  said  unto 
them,  "  Wherefore  do  ye,  Moses  and  Aaron,  let 
the  people  from  their  works?  get  you  unto  your 
burdens  ;"  and  Pharaoh  said,  ^"^  Behold,  the  people 
of  the  land  now  are  many,  and  ye  make  them  rest 
from  their  burdens  ;"  or  literally,  '^*  ye  cause  them 
to  sabbatize,"  or  "  keep  sabbath  from  their 
burdens." 

And  as  each  of  the  plagues  was  wrought,  each 
successive  request  was,  '^Let  my  people  go,  that 
they  may  serve  me  ;"  thus  virtually  asserting  that 


ITS   ORIGIN  AND   HISTORY.  37 

they  could  not  serve  God  in  Egypt,  that  the  Insti- 
tution, Avith  which  stood  connected  all  their  social 
public  religious  duties — "the  feast  of  the  Lord" — 
and  upon  which  depended  even  the  maintenance 
of  private  and  family  worship,  since  they  had  no 
books  or  written  language,  could  not  be  observed 
when  they  were  among  the  Egyptians.  So  Moses 
and  Aaron  said,  "  with  our  /lochs  and  herds  will 
we  go;  for  we  must  hold  a  feast  unto  the  Lord  ;" 
« thou  must  give  us  sacrifices  and  burnt  offerings 
that  we  may  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord  our  God." 
It  was  not  possible  for  them  to  resume  and  prac- 
tice the  observance  of  the  Divine  Institution  in  Egypt 
Pharaoh,  under  the  pressure  of  the  plagues, 
finally  consented  to  compromise  the  matter.  He 
<' called  for  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  said,  Go  ye, 
sacrifice  to  your  God  in  the  land.^^  This  was 
allowing  that  hitherto  they  had  not  been  allowed 
thus  to  sacrifice  among  the  Egyptians.  And 
Moses'  answer  confirms  the  fact,  and  assigns  the 
reason  for  it :  "  It  is  not  meet  so  to  do ;  for  we 
shall  sacrifice  the  abomination  of  the  Egyptians 
to  the  Lord  :  lo,  shall  we  sacrifice  the  abomination 
of  the  Egyptians  before  their  eyes,  and  ivill  they 
not  stone  usP'''  or,  as  the  Chaldee  version  of 
Exodus  reads,  ^"The  beasts  which  the  Egyptians 
worship,  shall  we  offer  in  sacrifice  ?"  i.  e.  our 
sacrifices  will  be  an  abomination — will  be  sacri- 
legious to  the  Egyptians.  Thus  it  is  clear  that 
4* 


38  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION, 

the  Israelites  had  not  the  privileges  and  rights  of 
worship  in  the  land  of  their  bondage  ;  and  all 
these  rights  and  privileges  stood  in  the  Divine 
Institution  of  which  we  are  treating. 

5.  We  also  learn  from  certain  quite  unmistake- 
able  allusions  in  their  after  history  that  many  of 
them — probably  most  of  them — while  in  Egypt 
actually  practised  the  idolatries  of  Egypt  into 
which  at  first  they  were  probably  coerced.  On 
their  reaching  the  promised  land  Joshua  exhorted 
them  thus,  (Josh.  xxiv.  14:)  ^-Put  away  the  gods 
which  your  fathers  served  on  the  other  side  of  the 
flood  a7id  in  Egypt,  and  serve  ye  the  Lord." 
And  God  said  by  the  mouth  of  Ezekiel  xx.  6 — 8  : 
^^Cast  ye  away  every  man  the  abominations  of 
his  eyes,  and  defile  not  yourselves  with  the  idols 
of  Egypt;  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  But  they 
rebelled  against  me,  and  would  not  barken  unto 
me  ;  they  did  not  every  man  cast  away  the  abomi- 
nations of  their  eyes,  neither  did  they  forsake  the 
idols  of  Egypty  So  we  learn  that  during  their 
bondage  they  for  the  most  part  became  even 
habitual  idolaters. 

And  their  loss  of  the  Divine  Institution  with  its 
attendant  duties  and  its  strong  conservative  power, 
and  this  gradually  contracted  habit  of  idolatry, 
explains — and  nothing  else  will  explain — their 
ready  fall,  or  lapse  into  idolatry  at  Sinai,  where 
they  made  and  worshipped  the  golden  calf. 


ITS    ORIGIN    AND    HISTORY.  39 

But  it  is  evident  that  their  adoption  of  the 
Egyptian  idolatry  could  not  at  first  have  been  the 
result  of  their  free  choice;  for,  (Gen.  xlvi.  34:) 
^^  every  shepherd  was  an  abomination  unto  the 
Egyptians,"  and  they  were  shepherds ;  and  again, 
(Gen.  xliii.  32 :)  "  the  Egyptians  might  not  eat 
bread  with  the  Hebrews,  for  they  were  an  abomi- 
nation unto  the  Egyptians."  The  idolatry  of  the 
Israelites  therefore  must  have  been  the  result  of 
compulsion.  And  this  coercion  and  w^ickedness 
of  their  oppressors,  which  was  doubtless  universal 
and  long  continued  with  all  the  train  of  blinding 
results,  explains  why  God  visited  the  land  with 
such  severe  and  summary  punishments,  and  also 
why  he  wrought  such  signs  and  wonders  among 
the  Hebrews. 

6.  That  the  term  "feast,"  used  in  the  requisition 
for  their  deliverance,  has  reference  to  the  Sabbath 
Institution,  will  appear  evident  from  what  we  find 
in  Lev.  xxiii,  2,  3:  "^^  These  are  mj  feasts:  six 
days  shall  work  be  done  :  but  the  seventh  day  is 
the  Sabbath  of  rest:^^  then  follow  additional  ap- 
pointments. And  this  u-as  the  feast  kept  by  their 
fathers  the  patriarchs.  This  Divine  Institution 
which  marking  the  division  of  time  into  weeks, 
commemorating  the  week  of  creation,  commemo- 
rating the  powder,  wisdom,  goodness,  authority, 
example  and  law  of  God,  was  a  great  Institu- 
tion for  the  world,  was  pre-eminently  a  "sign," 


40  THE   SABBATH  INSTITUTION. 

a  symbol,  a  conspicuous .  and  sublime  monu- 
ment of  the  God  of  the  whole  earth  and  the 
Ruler  of  mankind.  It  was  therefore  a  standing 
reproof  and  condemnation  of  all  idolatry,  while  at 
the  same  time  it  was  eminently  adapted  and  de- 
signed for  man's  intellectual  elevation  and  spiritual 
culture.  No  wonder  then  that  the  Egyptians,  and 
all  idolaters  of  olden  times  and  moderm  times  as 
w^ell,  were  anxious  to  destroy  it.  And  the  Hebrews 
were  called  out  of  Egypt,  where  this  Institution  had 
been  violently  and  utterly  demolished,  that  they, 
as  a  chosen  people,  might  again  erect  this  Divine 
Monument  with  all  its  included  services  and  bless- 
ings, together  with  some  new  and  peculiarly  in- 
structive appointments,  in  behalf  of  themselves 
and  of  the  whole  world  in  all  coming  time.  More- 
over, it  was  intended  to  set  the  Institution  in  new 
and  stronger  light,  associating  with  it  new  demon- 
strations of  the  Divine  Attributes,  Character  and 
Procedure,  to  prevent  its  being  again  lost,  as  its 
worth  to  man  had  now  been  proved  by  a  painful 
experience. 

7.  Instead  therefore  of  the  deliverance  being 
the  primary  reason  for  this  Divine  Institution,  as 
some  have  hastily  concluded,  the  Institution  with 
all  that  was  involved  in  it  became  the  special 
reason  for  the  deliverance — a  reason,  like  all  the 
reasons  underlying  the  Hebrew  economy,  reach- 
ing not  to  the  Hebrews  alone,  but  to  all  mankind 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  41 

in  all  following  ages  as  well.  The  Divine  Inter- 
position in  Egypt  \vas  in  behalf  of  the  whole 
world.  The  confusion  breathed  upon  the  Egyp- 
tion  gods  and  upon  Egyptian  cruelty  and  wicked- 
ness, was  a  lesson  for  the  entire  race  in  all  their 
subsequent  history  :  hence  the  inspired  pen  has 
recorded  it.  But  the  Israelites  felt  the  lesson 
more  immediately  for  themselves.  Accordingly 
we  find  Moses  saying,  Deut.  v.  12 — 15:  "Keep 
the  Sabbath  day  to  sanctify  it,  as  Jehovah  thy  God 
hath  commanded  thee.  Six  days  thou  shalt  labor 
and  do  all  thy  work :  but  the  seventh  day  is  the 
Sabbath  of  Jehovah  thy  God  :  in  it  thou  shalt  not 
do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter, 
nor  thy  man  servant,  nor  thy  maid  servant,  nor 
thine  ox,  nor  thine  ass,  nor  any  of  thy  cattle,  nor 
thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates :  that  thy 
man  servant  and  thy  maid  servant  may  rest  (Sab- 
batize)  as  well  as  thou."  God  was  anxious  that 
the  Institution  should  not  again  be  lost,  either  by 
forgetfulness  or  by  its  violation  on  the  part  of  any 
among-  the  Hebrews.  And  then  follows  in  the 
next  verse  a  particular  reason  drawn  from  their 
own  painful  history,  why  they  should  allow  their 
men  servants  and  maid  servants  to  sabbatize  as 
well  as  themselves  ;  "  And  remember  that  thou 
wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  that 
Jehovah  thy  God  brought  thee  out  thence  through 
a  mighty  hand   and    by  a  stretched   out   arm." 


42  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

Thus  he  would  seem  to  say  I  am  a  jealous  God 
for  my  Institution  :  it  was  made  for  man,  and  is 
of  such  worth  to  him,  and  so  connected  with  my 
glory  on  earth,  that  I  will  sorely  punish  all  who 
prohibit  its  observance,  as  I  did  the  Egyptians. 

Certainly  God  does  not  here  give,  as  some  writers 
have  conjectured  the  primary  reason  for  the  Insti- 
tution, for  this  he  had  given  before  in  other  places, 
as  in  Gen.  ii.  2,  3;  and  Ex.  xx.  11:  "For  in 
six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea 
and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh 
day :  loherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  Sabbath 
dai/.^^  The  primary  reason  for  this  Divine  Insti- 
tution, is  the  Divine  Work  of  Creation  and  the 
Divine  Rest  that  followed.  True,  a  secondary 
reason  to  the  Hebrews  may  now  be  found  in  the 
wonderful  and  miraculous  interventions  of  Jehovah 
in  their  rescue  from  consuming  oppression.  Hence 
the  allusion  to  their  bondage  when  enforcing  the 
full  observance  of  the  Institution,  was  to  remind 
them  of  their  renewed  and  peculiar  obhgation  to 
God,  and  to  warn  them  against  treating  their  ser- 
vants as  their  masters  and  oppressors  in  Egypt 
had  treated  them. 

From  the  above  considerations  the  question  of 
the  restoration  of  the  Institution  to  the  Hebrews 
on  their  emancipation  seerns  sufficiently  estab- 
lished. And  these  considerations  fully  prepare 
us  to  understand  the  record  respecting  the  giving 


ITS   ORIGIN    AND    HISTORY.  43 

of  the  manna  in  Ex.  xvi :  where  the  Institution  is 
so  particularly  mentioned,  and  about  which  Paley 
and  other  writers  of  less  note  have  said  so  much 
and  made  such  palpable  mistakes.  The  first 
mention  is  found  in  v.  22:  "And  it  came  to  pass 
that  on  the  sixth  day  they  gathered  twice  as  much 
bread,  two  ounces  for  one  man."  Here  distinct 
allusion  is  made  to  the  division  of  time  by  weeks, 
as  something  already  known,  which  had  before 
been  taught  them  by  Moses.  Again,  verses  24, 
26  :  "  And  they  laid  it  up  till  the  morning.  And 
Moses  said,  Eat  that  to-day  ;  for  to-day  is  a  Sabbath 
unto  the  Lord  :  to-day  ye  shall  not  find  it  in  the 
field.  Six  days  ye  shall  gather  it :  but  on  the 
seventh  day  which  is  the  Sabbath,  in  it  there  shall 
be  none."  And  in  verses  28,  29 :  God  reproves 
some  of  them  for  going  out  on  the  seventh  day  to 
look  for  the  manna.  Thus  the  previous  existence 
of  the  Institution  is  evinced,  and  especially  by  the 
language  of  the  reproof:  How  long  refuse  ye  to 
keep  my  commandments  and  my  laws?  The 
Institution  had  been  previously  known  as  a  com- 
mandment and  a  law.  Again  the  Lord  said, 
"  See,  for  that  the  Lord  hath  given  you,  (restored  to 
you,  for  so  the  word  is  often  used,^  therefore  he 
giveth  you  on  the  sixth  day  the  bread  of  two 
days :"  that  is,  since  the  Sabbath  Institution  is  of 
previous  obligation,  and  as  I  have  commanded  it, 
I  will  see  to  it  that  the  apportionment  of  manna 


44  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

shall  not  interfere  with  it ;  I  will  give  you  your 
daily  bread  in  such  a  manner  that  you  may  keep 
my  Institution  inviolate. 

8.  In  accordance  with  the  above  remarks  and 
harmonizing  with  the  whole  history,  we  find  the 
Divine  Institution  as  one  of  the  items  in  the 
Decalogue:  '^ Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep 
it  holy"— remember  it — keep  it  in  mind — never 
again  lose  it — remember  it  as  the  ancient  always 
existing  Institution,  reminding  you  and  all  man- 
kind that  I  am  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  world. 
Hence  the  Decalogue  contains  the  historic  fact  on 
Avhich  the  Institution  was  based ;  ^<  For,  in  six 
daj^s  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea, 
and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh 
day :  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  Sabbath  day 
and  hallowed  it."  Again,  Ex.  xxxi.  13  :  "Verily 
ray  Sabbaths  ye  shall  keep,  for  it — the  Institution 
— is  a  sign  between  me  and  you  throughout  your 
generations :  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am  the 
Lord  that  doth  sanctify  you."  You  are  my  pecu- 
liar people,  and  this  my  peculiar  Institution  is  for 
your  sanctification.  I  have  {appointed  you  to  hold 
up  my  name  and  all  the  memorials  of  ni}'"  power, 
wisdom,  goodness  and  grace  to  the  world. 

10.  That  this  Divine  Institution  Vv'as  not  simply 
a  memento  of  the  deliverance  of  the  Hebrews, 
will  further  appear  from  two  considerations : — 
First,  that  it  has  no  fitness  in  itself  to  m.cmorialize 


ITS   ORIGIN  AND   HISTORY.  45 

such  an  event.  Every  symbol,  sign,  type  and 
memorial  should  have  something  in  its  position  or 
structure  calculated  to  recall  or  shadow  forth  the 
thing  indicated  or  memorialized.  But  the  Jews 
were  not  emancipated  after  seven  or  seven  hundred 
years,  or  by  seven  plagues,  or  by  any  work  or 
mark  of  Divine  procedure  that  would  make  a 
septenary  division  of  time  a  memorial  of  it.  Nor 
was  there  anything  in  the  deliverance  that  was 
symbolized  by  the  essence,  the  body,  spirit  and 
intent  of  the  Sabbath  Institution.  Second,  the 
passover  and  the  sanctijication  of  the  first  horn 
were  ordinances  now  expressly  instituted  to  memo- 
rialize the  deliverance.  Read  Ex.  xii.  1 — 27;  and 
xiii.  1 — 16.  These  two  ordinances  possessed  all 
the  fitness  in  their  form  and  manner  of  observance 
that  is  required  in  symbols  or  memorials.  The 
passover  specially  was  the  ordained  anniversary 
festival  of  the  deliverance. 

But  we  have  said  enough  about  the  restoration 
of  the  Institution  to  the  emancipated  Hebrews, 
much  more  than  would  have  been  necessary,  had 
not  certain  writers  asserted  that  it  was  first  ap- 
pointed for  the  Israehtes,  and  was  wholly  Jewish 
in  its  requirements,  design  and  history. 


46  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 


CHAPTER    III. 

INCORPORATIOX  OF   THE   INSTITUTION   INTO   THE   POLITICO- 
EELIGIOUS    CODE   OF   THE   JEWS. 

We  come  now  in  the  third  stage  of  the  history 
of  the  Institution  to  consider  its  incorporation  into 
the  politico-rehgioiis  code  of  the  Hebrews. 

1.  It  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  commonly  called  the  Mosaic  economy, 
was  made  up  of  two  kinds  of  enactments  or  Jaws. 
The  one  kind  consisted  of  such  as  before  existed, 
had  always  existed  from  the  origin  of  the  race 
corresponding  v/ith  the  unchangeable  relations  of 
man  ;  the  other  class  consisted  of  such  as  were 
now  given  for  the  first  time,  such  as  had  special 
application  to  the  Hebrews  as  a  nation,  as  a  chosen 
people  for  a  chosen  end,  though  some  of  the  enact- 
ments had  at  the  same  time  a  very  special  pro- 
spective reference  to  the  enlightenment  and  salva- 
tion of  the  world  under  a  more  perfect  dispensation 
hereafter  to  be  brought  in.  Both  these  kinds  of 
enactments  were  united  for  the  Jews  making  a 
new  peculiar  code — a  Theocracy — a  religious  and 
civil  economy  of  direct  Divine  appointment. 

The  first  class  of  laws,  which  were  a  summary 
of  the  common  law  of  mankind,  were  written  by 
the  finger  of  God  in  tables  of  stone.     Not  so  was 


ITS   ORIGIN  AND    HISTORY.  47 

it  with  the  other  class  :  these  had  no  such  imper- 
ishable significancy,  though  they  were  of  explicit 
import  to  the  Jews.  Even  the  passover,  the  sanc- 
tification  of  the  first  born,  the  appointment,  offices 
and  duties  of  the  priesthood,  the  law  of  circum- 
cision, and  the  law  of  sacrifices,  important  as  they 
all  were,  nevertheless  were  not  honored  by  the 
finger  of  God  in  stone,  but  were  committed  to  a 
book  by  the  hand  of  Moses,  as  they  belonged  only 
to  the  Mosaic  perishable  economy.  But  the  Sab- 
bath Institution  was  one  of  the  laws  honored  in 
the  tables  of  stone  ;  hence  it  stood  among  the  fun- 
damental, imperishable  laws  ordained  for  the  race, 
though  for  a  time  like  all  the  items  of  the  Decalogue, 
having  peculiar  Jewish  aspects  and  appendages. 

2.  But  we  are  now  to  notice  the  particular 
manner  in  which  the  Sabbath  Institution  was 
inwoven  with  the  Mosaic  economy.  It  was  incor- 
porated into  that  economy  or  dispensation  as  a 
positive  law  or  institute,  as  an  item  in  their  civil 
government.  And  so  indeed  were  all  the  items  of 
the  Decalogue.  In  keeping  this  Divine  Institu- 
tion, the  Hebrews  were  naturally  left  without 
specific  command  at  first  to  employ  their  usual, 
ancient  time-table,  the  common  reckoning  of  the 
whole  world  in  those  days,  beginning  and  ending 
the  days  with  the  appearing  of  the  stars ;  but  in 
respect  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Institution  and 
the  particulars  as  to  the  mode  of  its  observance, 


48  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

these    things   were    very    particularly,   positively 
enjoined,  and  ever)^  violation  was  to  be  visited  by 
speedy,  capital  punishment.     Ex.  xxxi.  14,  15 : 
"Ye  shall  keep  the  Sabbath  therefore  :  for  it  is  holy 
unto  you  :  every  one  that  chjileth  it  shall  surely  be 
put   to    death:    for  whosoever   doeth    any   ivork 
therein  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  among  his 
people.     Six  days  may  work  be  done,  but  in  the 
seventh  is  the  Sabbath  of  rest,  holy  to  the  Lord: 
whosoever  doeth  any  work  in  the  Sabbath  day,  he . 
shall  surely  be  jmt  to  death.'"     Ex.  xxxv.  2,  3 : 
"  Whosoever  doeth  work  therein  shall  be  put  to 
death.     Ye  shall  kindle  no  fire  throughout  your 
habitations  upon  the  Sabbath   day."      Num.   xv. 
32 — 36  :   "  And  while  the  children  of  ilsrael  were 
in  the  wilderness,  they  found  a  man  that  gathered 
sticks    upon    the    Sabbath   day.     And   they   that 
found  him  brought  him  unto  Moses  and  unto  all 
the   congregation.     And   they  put  him    in  ward. 
And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  the  man  shall  be. 
surely  put  to  death:   all  the  congregation  shall 
stone  him  with  stones  without  the  camp.     And  all 
the  congregation  brought  him  without  the  camp 
and  stoned  him  with  stones,  and  lie  died ;  as  the. 
Lord  commanded  Moses.^^     Jer.  xvii.  2T:  "But_ 
if  ye  will  not  hearken  unto  me  to  hallow  the  Sab-, 
bath  day,  and  not  to  bear  burden,  even  entering, 
in  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  on  the  Sabbath  day : 
then  will  I  kindle  a  fire  in  the  gates  thereof  and  it 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY.  49 

shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  shall 
not  be  quenched." 

Thus  strictly,  positively,  civilly  was  this  Insti- 
tution enjoined,  and  every  violation  of  it  capitally 
punished.  And,  were  this  the  place,  we  might 
show  that  violations  of  the  other  items  of  the  deca- 
logue were  punished  in  a  like  manner. 

3.  These  considerations  seem  conclusively  to 
show  us,  what  is  of  very  great  consequence  to  us, 
that  the  Jewish  economy  was  civil  as  well  as  reli- 
gious, was  political  as  well  as  ecclesiastical — was 
in  fact  politico-religious.  Hence  in  deducing,  from 
that  economy,  what  belongs  to  universal  man,  we 
must  try  to  distinguish  between  what  was  civil 
and  what  was  religious — what  was  instituted  and 
what  was  moral — what  was  Jewish  and  what  was 
world-wide  in  its  obligations:  though,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  the  Israehtes,  at  this  time,  were 
quite  incapable  of  making  this  distinction,  on 
account  of  their  extreme  ignorance  and  mental 
imbecility  induced  by  their  severe  and  protracted 
bondage.  Hence  God  did  not  then  require  them 
to  make  such  distinction.  To  them,  and  to  the 
whole  world  as  well,  at  that  time,  moral  science 
and  political  economy  were  all  one ;  they  were 
unable  to  distinguish  between  a  religious  system 
and  a  civil  code.  And  this  great  fact  we  must 
bear  in  mind,  else  we  shall  be  brought  into  con- 
fusion, and  find  ourselves  incapable  of  understand- 
5* 


50  THE   SABBATH  INSTITUTION. 

ing  the  steps  of  the  Divine  procedure,  in  finally 
taking  down  the  old  Hebreu'  economy  and  setting 
up  the  new  spiritual  Christian  dispensation.  We 
are  capable  of  making,  and  are  required  to  make, 
that  distinction  which  the  Israelites  could  not  make. 

4.  It  should  be  kept  in  mind  therefore  that 
there  were  two  kinds  of  enactments  given  to  the 
Jews;  the  one  kind  peculiarly  moral,  the  other 
kind  peculiarly  ceremonial ;  yet  both  these  were 
parts  of  their  politico-religious  code.  There  is  a 
clear  distinction  to  be  made  by  us  between  those 
enactments  that  were  not  found  in  the  Decalogue, 
such  as  the  passover,  the  sanctification  of  the  first 
born,  circumcision,  the  priesthood,  the  sacrifices, 
the  judicial  institutes  and  the  like  which  were 
written  in  '^a  book,"  and  '^^the  commandments" 
which  were  ^"^  graven  in  tables  of  stone,"  which  in 
essence,  not  in  their  political  aspects,  had  always 
existed,  and  were  purposed  to  be  the  cornmon  law 
of  the  race  while  the  world  should  stand.  The 
first  requisitions  were  strictly  and  early  Jewish, 
adapted  to  an  early  age  and  educational  stage  of  a 
fallen  world,  the  necessary  diagrams  in  an  intro- 
ductory, preparatory  economy.  The  last  require- 
ments were  founded  in  the  relations  existing  between 
man  and  man,  and  between  man  and  his  Maker. 

And  the  whole  united  body  of  these  institutes — 
''the  tables  of  stone"  and  "the  book" — the  posi- 
tive and  the  moral,  the  substantial  and  the  typical. 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY.  51 

as  then,  and  in  that  particular  theocratic  manner, 
enjoined,  were  for  the  Hebrews  alone  under  their 
tutorial  economy.  And  that  economy  was  ordained 
to  fill  the  office  of  ''B.  schoolmaster,"  not  for  them 
alone,  though  confined  in  its  binding  force  to  them, 
but  for  the  world  as  well,  to  train  and  educate  for 
manifestations  and  duties,  for  events  and  achieve- 
ments far  in  the  future  connected  with  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  race  under  the  gospel  dispensation. 

5.  Previously  to  the  existence  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  the  Sabbath  Institution  held  the  rank  of  a 
moral  requisition  standing  on  positive  appointments 
as  to  its  time  and  its  manner  of  observance.  This 
must  have  been  specially  the  case  with  the  Insti- 
tution when  first  given  in  Eden.  But  now  to  the 
Jews  it  was  different.  To  them  a  mixed  economy 
was  suitable  and  necessary.  There  was  a  plain 
and  urgent  necessity  in  the  fallen  condition  of  the 
race,  and  among  the  Jews  in  particular,  that  their 
religious  duties  should,  for  a  time  at  least,  be 
held  up  and  enforced  by  religio-pohtical  authority, 
through  the  command  and  guardianship  of  God 
himself;  else  all  would  have  been  utterly  lost. 
Hence  God  established  the  theocracy  among  the 
Hebrews. 

6.  The  items  of  the  Decalogue  in  their  essence 
always  existed  from  the  origin  of  the  race.  As 
they  were  not  originated  by  the  Hebrew  economy, 
they  could  not  pass  away  with  it.     They  existed 


52  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

as  ^^the  commandments"  of  God  before;  thoufrh 
they  were  now  made  part  and  parcel  of  a  positive 
civil  code.  If  men  had  never  sinned,  all  these 
would  always  have  remained  moral ;  but  when 
the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased 
God  in  wisdom  and  mercy  to  make  them  for  a 
time  positive,  and  to  hold  them  up  on  a  political 
frame-work  or  scaffold  for  a  time,  until  they  should 
again  be  discovered  and  appreciated  as  moral, 
when  the  frame-work  and  scaffolding  might  be 
taken  down. 

7.  We  should  not  forget  that  feature  of  the 
Divine  Government  which  we  illustrated  in  our 
introductory  remarks  by  the  supposed  case  of  a 
father  educating  his  child  ;  from  which  we  learned 
how  a  moral  duty  is  first  made  known  and  enforced 
as  positive,  and  how  by  experience  and  study — by 
the  resuks  of  a  gradual  development,  what  for  a 
time  was  positive  may  be  raised  to  take  the  posi- 
tion and  rank  of  moral.  Thus  usually  at  first  a 
new  duty  must  be  explicitly  revealed  and  posi- 
tively enforced ;  and  if  it  is  not  readily  recognized 
as  moral,  it  should  be  held  up  by  special  provisions 
and  its  violations  visited  with  special  penalties ; 
finally,  when  knowledge  and  experience  have 
shown  its  moral  character,  it  may  and  ought  to 
drop  its  positive  aspects  and  return  to  its  position 
and  rank  as  a  moral  requisition. 

8.  The  Hebrew  pohty  was  ordained  to  answer 


ITS    ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  53 

different  though  inter-related  purposes.  Certainly 
one  of  these  purposes  was  the  preservation,  eleva- 
tion and  elucidation  of  ''  the  commandments."  It 
was  a  scheme  for  magnifying  the  Divine  Law. 
What  was  civil  and  primitive  in  respect  to  these 
'< commandments,"  was  only  for  a  season  to  pre- 
serve them  from  ever  again  being  forgotten  or 
neglected,  till  in  the  issue  they  should  rise  to  their 
original  authoritative  place  as  substantially  God's 
will  for  the  race — for  all  men  without  respect  to 
nation,  language  or  political  differences. 

9.  The  Sabbath  Institution  therefore  in  its  sub- 
stance was  by  no  means  a  Jewish  Institution.  It 
took  on  it  for  the  time  Jewish  peculiarities  that 
were  to  pass  away,  but  it  existed  in  all  its  integrity 
from  the  creation  of  man.  It  was  made  for  man 
universal.  It  was  designed  for  all  nations  and  ages, 
however  some  of  its  connectives  might  change. 
Ev^en  its  changes  should  leave  it  in  a  stronger, 
higher,  more  excellent  position.  What  was  civil 
or  political  in  relation  to  it  among  the  Hebrews, 
was  only  necessary  for  its  protection  and  preserva- 
tion when  a  blinded  enraged  world  was  determined 
on  its  destruction,  all  of.  which  was  to  terminate 
with  the  civil  liabilities  and  theocratic  history  of 
the  Hebrews.  Only  what  was  moral  and  purely 
religious,  only  that,  and  all  that  which  was  adapted 
to  the  race,  was  to  remain  and  be  of  perpetual 
obligation. 


54  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

We  have  nothing  therefore  now  to  do  with  a 
Jewish  Institution.  To  us  belongs  the  Institution 
as  made  for  man.  Though  several  changes  have 
transpired  in  reference  to  it,  it  still  remains  and 
stands  in  clearer  light  than  ever,  under  the  new, 
changeless  Christian  dispensation  with  world-wide 
adaptations. 


CHAPTER    lY. 

HISTORY   AND    RANK   OP   THE   INSTITUTION   UNDER   THE 
CHRISTIAN    DISPENSATION. 

In  the  final  stage  of  the  history  of  the  Divine 
Institution,  we  are  to  consider  its  recognition,  his- 
tory and  rank  under  the  Christian  dispensation. 

1.  The  Christian  dispensation  as  a  whole,  began 
from  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  The  work  of  pre- 
paration for  it  was  finished  with  his  death,  though 
it  was  some  days  after  that  the  first  church  made 
its  first  public  appearance,  and  won  its  first  victo- 
ries. True,  some  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  and 
practices  pertaining  to  this  dispensation  were  pub- 
lished and  practised  by  John  the  Baptist,  and  most 
authoritatively  urged  in  the  ministry  of  Christ 
himself;  but  the  church  as  an  independent  organi- 
zation with  its   appropriate   offices,  officers   and 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  55 

observances,  did  not  begin  its  regular  action  till 
after  Christ  had  risen  from  the  dead.  This,  I 
believe,  is  conceded  by  all. 

2.  We  must  expect  therefore  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath to  be  continued  till  after  Christ's  resurrection, 
and  that  Christ  and  his  disciples,  being  Jevv's,  will 
be  found,  until  that  event,  observing  the  Institution 
in  its  Jewish  form.  And  such  was  the  fact, 
^  In  respect  to  Christ's  recognition  and  observance 
of  the  Institution,  it  will  be  necessary  to  offer  a  few 
words,  since  some  have  conjectured  that  he  abro- 
gated it.  Christ  expressly  declared  :  '^'•'The  Son  of 
man  is  Lord  even  of  the  Sabbath  day."  He  had 
the  authority  therefore  of  effecting  such  changes 
in  the  Institution,  changes  in  the  mode  and  time 
of  its  observance,  as  he  should  see  fit.  But  what 
did  he  do?  He  was  always  careful  to  honor  the 
Institution.  Luke  iv.  16 :  "  He  came  to  Nazareth 
where  he  had  been  brought  up,  and,  as  his  custom 
was,  he  went  unto  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath 
day  and  stood  up  to  read."  Here  we  have  his 
custom — his  habit.  Nor  did  he  ever  intimate  that 
it  was  his  design  then  or  after  his  resurrection  to 
abrogate  the  Institution.  He  had  indeed  frequent 
difficulties  Avith  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in  re- 
spect to  the  manner  of  its  observance ;  they 
accused  him  of  being  a  Sabbath  breaker,  but  the 
accusation  was  false  :  he  only  attacked  the  perver- 
sions of   the    Institutions,  the    false    glosses    and 


56  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

rabbinical  traditions  that  had  obtained :  he  never 
warred  against  the  Institution  itself.  He  kept  the 
Institution  strictly  as  a  Jew,  and  he  required  his 
disciples  during  his  life  to  do  the  same.  He 
observed  the  Jewish  form  of  the  Institution  while 
the  Jewish  economy  remained.  His  procedure 
mentioned  in  Luke  vi.  1,  was  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  Moses,  as  we  learn  from  Deut.  xxiii. 
24,  25.  He  went  no  farther  than  to  counterwork 
'Uhe  commandments  and  doctrines  of  men." 
Instead  of  contending  against  the  Institution,  he 
simply  threw  off  its  traditional  corruptions. 

In  like  manner  his  disciples  observed  the  Insti- 
tution. The  devout  women  that  followed  him  to 
the  cross  '^  returned,  and  prepared  spices  and 
ointments,  and  rested  the  Sabbath  day  according 
to  the  commandment." 

And  we  might  add,  that  what  Christ  did  for 
this  Institution,  he  also  did  for  all  "the  command- 
ments ;"  that  is,  he  labored  by  word  and  practice 
to  remove  their  perversions,  and  to  point  out  their 
true  scope  and  intent.  He  was  the  Defender  of 
the  Decalogue. 

But  after  Christ's  resurrection,  we  have  no  evi- 
dence that  he  longer  observed  the  Institution  with 
its  Jewish  adaptations,  either  as  to  the  manner  of 
its  observance  or  the  time  appropriated  to  it ;  he 
did,  however,  observe  the  Institution  itself,  in  its 
substance.     The  theocratic  polity  now  terminated, 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY. 

and  many  changes  were  the  necessary  results. 
With  the  new  dispensation,  which,  as  to  the  moral 
world,  was  as  the  creating  n-econstructing)  of  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth,  the  Divine  Institution  as 
ordained  for  man  remained. 

The  day  appropriated  to  its  observance  was 
changed,  The  Institution  henceforth  had  for  its 
reckoning  point  the  day  of  Christ's  resurrection. 
But  of  the  fact  and  manner  of  this  change,  as  also 
of  the  authority  hy  which  it  was  done,  we  shall 
speak  in  Fart  Second;  and  of  the  changes  in  the 
manner  of  its  observance,  we  shall  speak  in  Fart 
Third. 

Hitherto,  then,  we  have  followed  the  Divine 
Institution  from  the  garden  of  Eden  through  the 
ancient  dispensations  and  ages,  to  the  setting  up 
of  the  Christian  economy,  the  whole  being  a  period 
of  about  four  thousand  years.  And  now  we  hear 
the  Lord  of  the  Institution,  the  Founder  of  the 
new  dispensation,  saying,  ^''  The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man" — for  the  education  and  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  race.  Hence,  we  are  full}^  prepared  to 
find  the  Institution  now  standing  out  with  even 
new  excellencies  and  glories,  corresponding  with 
the  new,  more  excellent  moral  dispensation,  which 
is  to  spread  among  all  nations  and  endure  to  the 
end  of  the  world,  illuminated  with  the  glory  of 
God  shining  in  the  face  of  the  Lord  of  the  Sab- 
bath. Now,  we  shall  not  be  surprised  to  find  that 
6 


58  THE   SABBATH  INSTITUTION. 

the  Institution  stands  on  a  higher,  stronger  plat- 
form than  it  ever  before  occupied. 

3.  Accordingly,  in  the  New  Testament,  contain- 
ing the  record  of  the  planting  of  the  first  churches, 
and  in  all  reliable  ecclesiastical  histories,  we  find 
that  the  churches  of  Christ,  have  carefully,  con- 
stantly  observed   this   Institution.      They    never 
conceived  that  it  had  been  abrogated  ;  such  a  sup- 
position originated  in  later  times.     The  number  in 
any  century  since  the  apostoHc  period  who  have 
supposed  that  the  Institution  was  abrogated  with 
the  Hebrew  economy,  has  been  very  small ;  and 
their  views  in  other  respects  have  not  been  calcu- 
lated to  give  weight  to  their  notions  of  the  Sabbath. 
Nor  have  there  ever  been  many  at  any  time  who 
have  contended  for  bringing  over  the  old  Jewish 
Sabbath  to  the  new  dispensation.     Such  notions 
were  unheard  of  in  the  days  of  the  apostles  except 
among  the  Ebionites,  a  class  of  Judaizing  Chris- 
tians— if  Christians    at  all— whom   Dr.  Priestley 
claims  as    Unitarians,   because    they  denied    the 
Divinity  of  Christ.     These  held  to  many  of  the 
Jewish  ceremonies  and  especially  to  the  Jewish 
Sabbath.     But  Theodoret  tells  us  that  some  even 
of  these  ^'  also  sanctified  the  Lord's   day  in  like 
manner  as  Christians."      With  the  exception  of 
these  Ebionites,  the  early  churches  were  unani- 
mous in  appropriating  to  the  Institution  the  first 
day  of  the  week.     Until  the  fourth  century,  how- 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  59 

ever,  ihey  always  called  the  day  the  Lord's  day 
in  commemoration  of  the  event  from  which  the 
Institution  to  them  took  its  new  higher  associations, 
and  also  to  distinguish  the  Christian  Sabbath  from 
the  old  Jewish  Sabbath  and  from  the  Sabbath  of 
the  Ebionites.  And  after  the  example  of  the 
Apostles,  most  Christians  have  continued  to  this 
day  to  call  the  day  appropriated  to  the  Institution, 
"the  Lord's  Day." 

In  later  times,  beginning  when  the  Roman  Em 
pire  became  Christianized,  the  day,  not  the  Insti 
tution,  has  often  been  called  by  another  name 
The  nations  of  Europe  had  a  particular  name  for 
every  day  in  the  week ;  which  names  nearly  all 
modern  nations  have  finally  adopted  for  conve- 
nience, and  now  use,  which  are  Sunday,  Monday, 
Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  Friday,  Satur- 
day. The  name  Sunday,  therefore,  is  Jnot  a 
Christian  but  a  secular  name,  and  is  not  used  to 
designate  the  Divine  Institution,  but  simply  the 
day  on  which  the  Institution  is  observed.  There- 
fore, the  word  Sabbath  should  never  be  understood 
as  synonymous  with  the  word  Sunday.  Sabbath 
is  the  name  of  the  Institution.  Sunday  is  the 
mere  name  of  the  day.  As  we  would  say  that 
Saturday  was  the  Sabbath  day  of  the  Jews,  so  we 
say  that  Sunday  is  the  Sabbath  day  of  Christians  ; 
making  always  a  distinction  between  the  name  of 
the  day  and  the  name  of  the  Institution. 


60  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

4.  We  are  now  prepared  to  consider  the  rank 
and  position  of  the  Institution  under  the  new  dis- 
pensation. And  we  remark  emphatically  that  its 
rank  is  moral  instead  of  positive.  As  we  have 
previously  shown,  this  grand  distinction  is  to  be 
made  between  the  two  dispensations  as  wholes ; 
the  old,  or  Jewish,  was  positive  ;  the  new,  or  Chris- 
tian, is  moral.  Under  the  old,  the  commandments 
of  God  were  institutes,  were  semi-political,  en- 
joined in  a  particular  way  and  enforced  by  civil 
authority  ;  under  the  new,  they  are  moral  precepts, 
purely  religious,  not  pohtico-religious. 

Says  Andrew  Fuller: — "The  Jewish  Church 
was  an  army  of  soldiers,  who  had  to  go  through  a 
variety  of  forms  in  learning  their  discipline  ;  the 
Christian  Church  is  an  army  going  forth  to  battle. 
The  members  of  the  former  were  taught  punctili- 
ous obedience,  and  led  with  great  formality  through 
a  great  variety  of  religious  evolutions ;  but  those 
of  the  latter — though  they  must  keep  their  ranks 
and  act  in  obedience  to  command  whenever  it  is 
given — are  not  required  to  be  so  attentive  to  the 
mechanical,  as  to  the  mental,  not  so  much  to  the 
minute  observance  of  forms,  as  to  the  spirit  and 
design  of  them.  The  order  of  the  one  w^ould 
almost  seem,  to  have  been  appointed  for  order's 
sake  ;  but  in  that  of  the  other,  the  utility  of  every- 
thing is  apparent.     The  obedience  of  the  former 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND   HISTORY.  61 

was  that  of  little  children ;  the  latter  that  of  sons 
arrived  at  mature  age." 

5.  In  confirmation  of  these  views,  and  lest  any 
one  should  seem  to  have  ground  for  objectmg  to 
the  purely  moral  rank  of  the  Divine  Institution 
which  we  are  considering,  we  would  add  that  all 
the  items  of  the  decalogue  have  been  emancipated 
— if  I  may  say  so — or  taken  out  from  their  Jewish 
tutelage,  and  raised  under  the  new  dispensation  to 
an  untrammeled  moral  rank  ;  that  is,  from  positive, 
semi-political,  to  free,  spiritual. 

A  violation  of  the  second  commandment  among 
the  Jews  was  punishable  with  the  curse  of  death  ; 
Deut.  xxvii.  15.  Nothing  of  this  kind  is  required 
under  the  new  dispensation. 

A  violator  of  the  third  command  was  to  be 
stoned  to  death ;  Lev.  xxiv.  16.  Directly  the 
opposite  of  this  is  now  required  ;  the  violator  is  to 
be  spared  that  he  may  repent. 

An  infringement  of  the  fourth  command  was 
capitally  punished  ;  Ex.  xxxi.  14,  15.  Such  is 
not  the  case  under  the  Christian  economy. 

The  breaking  of  the  fifth  item  of  the  decalogue 
was  visited  by  the  sentence  of  death  ;  Deut.  xxvii. 
16.     Such  sentence  is  now  prohibited. 

He  that  violated  the  sixth  item  forfeited  his  life  ; 
Gen.  ix,  6.  Such  power  is  not  now  to  be  exer- 
cised by  the  Christian  Church. 

In  like  manner  death  was  the  penalty  of  viola- 


62  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

tions  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  commandments  ; 
Ex.  xxxi.  12,  14 ;  Lev.  xx.  10.  This  is  far  from 
being  consonant  either  with  the  letter  or  the  spirit 
of  the  new  dispensation. 

The  decalogue,  in  short,  was  positive  in  its 
force  among  the  Hebrews  ;  every  infringement  of 
it  was  a  capital  offence.  But  now  to  the  churches 
of  Christ  it  is  purely  moral ;  the  punishments  for 
violations  are  not  vested  in  the  churches  any 
farther  than  by  the  act  of  excommunication ;  but 
are  referred  to  the  civil  power,  or  reserved  to  the 
day  of  judgment. 

6.  In  early  times,  among  the  Hebrews,  and 
among  all  nations  as  well,  things  ecclesiastical  and 
things  political  were  combined,  the  civil  and  reli- 
gious were  intermarried ;  Church  and  State  were 
truly,  inseparably  united,  forming  a  yoke  suited 
to  the  people  and  the  times — a  system  necessar}?- 
to  that  stage  of  knowledge  and  religious  progress. 

But  now,  Church  and  State  are  divorced.  Chris- 
tians are  not  united  and  bound  by  any  political 
ties  or  obligations  in  the  shape  of  an  appointed  sys- 
tem. Even  the  churches  are  independent  of  each 
other;  each  standing  on  the  gospel  platform  for 
itself,  accountable  only  to  Christ.  The  whole 
structure  of  the  Christian  system  bears  the  moral 
impress.  Nothing  positive  in  shape  is  found  in 
the  New  Testament  even  about  the  organization 
of  Churches  ;  no  stereotyped  pattern  is  held  up. 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  63 

Nor  IS  there  anything  precise  about  officers  as  to 
their  number  or  their  duties  ;  nothing  instituted  in 
the  shape  of  an  enactment  about  forms  or  formulas 
of  worship  ;  nothing  specified  about  the  place  of 
worship,  or  the  frequency  with  which  we  shall 
worship ;  no  specific  seasons  for  administering 
baptism,  or  for  observing  the  Institution  of  the 
Lord's  Supper ;  no  express  precepts  about  the 
manner  of  observing  the  Sabbath  Institution ;  no- 
thing positively  instituted  about  family  worship ; 
nothing  positively  specified  about  Christian  schools, 
Sabbath  Schools,  charitable  societies  and  institu- 
tions, writing  and  printing  religious  books  or 
organizing  missionary  societies  for  sending  the 
Gospel  to  the  benighted. 

But  certainly  all  these  things  must  be  attended 
to  by  Christians.  Many  of  them  must  be  definitely 
acted  upon  by  churches.  They  all  belong  to  the 
spirit,  genius  and  intent  of  the  new  dispensation, 
though  no  pattern  for  them  has  been  shown  in  the 
mount.  All  these  are  to  be  wrought  out  by  the 
spirit  and  general  principles  of  the  gospel  in  ex- 
tempore patterns  suited  to  the  time,  circumstances 
and  demands  of  the  case  in  hand.  These  things 
like  all  the  items  of  the  Decalogue  rest  wholly  on 
moral  grounds.  Stereotyped  patterns  for  their 
execution  would  be  unwieldy — not  at  all  adapted  to 
the  mature  character  and  diffusive  energies  of  the 
new  dispensation.     But  from  these  facts  no  one  i 


64  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

justified  in  supposing  that  these  duties  are  not  as 
obligatory  and  even  more  so,  than  it  positively  en- 
joined. 

The  Saviour  in  his  teachings  and  conduct  often 
found  occasion  to  defend  ^-the  commandments," 
and  he  always  presented  them  in  their  spiritual  and 
moral  bearings  ;  he  never  spoke  of  them  as  about 
to  be  abrogated.  In  evidence  of  this  we  have  only 
to  study  his  memorable  sermon  on  the  mount. 
And  the  Apostles  in  all  their  labors,  preaching 
planting  and  giving  orders  to  the  churches,  pro- 
ceeded not  on  the  ground  that  the  items  of  the  deca- 
logue had  been  abrogated,  but  only  such  appoint- 
ments as  were  positive  and  Jewish.  The  Apostle 
Paul  wrote  to  the  Coiossians  ii.  16,  17;  "Let  no 
man  therefore  judge  you  in  meat,  or  in  drink,  or  in 
respect  of  a  holy  day,  or  of  the  new  moon,  or  the 
sabbath  days ;  which  are  a  shadow  of  things  to 
come;  but  the  body  (substance)  is  of  Christ." 
Of  the  Sabbath  days  here  mentioned,  Scott  very 
justly  remarks  ;  "  The  Sabbath  under  the  Mosaic 
dispensation,  was  a  ceremonial  and  a  judicial  as 
well  as  a  moral  requirement ;  the  morality  of  it 
had  no  necessary  connection  with  the  seventh  day 
in  preference  to  all  others,  save  as  that  was  ap- 
pointed during  that  dispensation ;  but  the  appro- 
priation of  a  part  of  our  time  for  the  worship  and 
service  of  God  is  of  moral  and  essentially  immutable 
obhgation." 


ITS   ORIGIN   AND    HISTORY.  65 

7.  "We  can  easily  see  therefore,  in  the  light  of 
these  reflections,  how  it  was  that  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
could  not  pass  over  or  be  transferred  to  the  new 
dispensation.  The  two  dispensations  were  so 
different  as  not  to  allow  of  this.  The  Institution 
belongs  to  all  dispensations,  since  it  ^^was  made 
for  man" — man  in  all  ages  ;  it  passes  over  to  the 
new,  but  it  passes  over  as  moral  not  as  positive. 

8.  Even  the  day  appropriated  to  the  Institution 
under  the  theocracy  might  be,  and  was,  changed 
for  certain  sufficient  reasons,  without  at  all  impair- 
ing the  Institution  in  its  authority  or  efficiency ; 
without  even  impairing  its  memorial  character,  for 
its  memorial  significancy  consists  not  so  much,  if 
at  all,  in  its  chronological  starting,  as  in  the  division 
of  time  into  weeks,  thus  memorializing  properly 
the  whole  work  and  period  of  creation  as  well  as 
the  divine  example  of  rest. 

And  it  certainly  was  wise  in  transferring  the  In- 
stitution to  the  higher  ground  of  the  new  dispensa- 
tion, to  change  the  day,  if  by  so  doing  nothing 
whatever  was  lost,  but  much  was  to  be  gained, 
namely,  the  connecting  with  its  ancient  memorial 
significancy  the  memory  of  a  greater  day  and  the 
completion  of  a  greater  work,  which  was  as  the 
creating  of  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth ;  for 
certainly  in  magnitude  and  interest  the  Avork  of  re- 
demption as  a  manifestation  of  the  Deity  to  man  far 
surpasses  the  work  of  creation. 


66  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

It  was  highly  proper  that  the  Institution  under 
the  new  dispensation  should  in  some  way  be  asso- 
ciated with  the  work  of  redemption  so  as  to  magnify 
the  name  and  grace  of  God  our  Saviour. 

9.  From  the  different  characters  and  purposes 
of  the  two  economies  it  seemed  absolutely  neces- 
sary, that,  in  setting  up  the  new  and  perfect  one 
with  its  world-w^ide  evangelizing  adaptations,  no  part 
of  the  old  provincial  disciplinary  economy  should 
overlap  the  new  ;  lest  many  should  stumble  in  dis- 
tinguishing between  them  and  so  fail  of  that  full 
liberty  wherewith  Christ  makes  us  free — should 
mingle  works  and  faith  in  the  ground-work  of  their 
salvation.  The  new  v/ine  must  needs  be  put  into 
new  bottles. 

So  now  the  Sabbath  institution  not  only  remains, 
but  as  a  moral  requisition  holding  lively  association 
with  the  scheme  of  redemption,  having  dropped  its 
theocratic  and  Jewish  supports,  it  stands  on  much 
higher,  stronger  and  more  engaging  grounds  than 
it  ever  before  occupied. 


PART    SECOND. 


THE   TIME  APPROPRIATED  TO  THE 
INSTITUTION. 


CHAPTER    I. 

•TIME  APPROPRIATED   TO   THE  INSTITUTON   UNDER  THE 
FIRST    OR    EDUCATIONAL   DtSPENSATlON. 

1.  Under  the  second  grand  division  of  the  subject 
which  we  are  discussingj— a  division  made  to  avoid 
unnecessary  confusion — we  are  to  consider  the 
time  appropriated  to  the  Sabbath  Institution.  And 
in  the  first  chapter  of  this  division  we  shall  speak  of 
the  time  appropriated  under  the  early  dispensations. 

But  before  coming  directly  to  this,  let  us  suggest 
a  few  preliminary  considerations. 

2.  It  is  very  necessary  that  v/e  distinguish 
between  the  Institution  itself,  and  the  time  or  day 
v/hich  the  Institution  may  occupy.  The  Institu- 
tion itself  is  one  thing,  the  day  devoted  to  it,  or 
occupied  by  it  is  another  thing.  The  Sabbath  time 
is  not  the  Sabbath  Institution.  The  Institution  is 
for  divine  worship ;  the  day  is  for  the  Institution. 
The  ground  on  which  an  edifice  stands  is  not  the 
edifice  itself,     The  time  devoted  to  any  duty  or 


68  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

service  is  not  that  duty  or  service;  the  thing  con- 
taining is  not  the  thing  contained.  The  time 
necessary  for  any  service  may  be  changed,  and  yet 
no  service  lost.  That  is  a  very  low  and  wrong 
estimate  of  the  Sabbath  Institution  which  regards  it 
as  time-keeping.  Had  God  so  chosen  he  might 
have  required  the  appropriation  of  every  third,  or 
sixth,  or  tenth  day,  while  the  Institution  in  its  spirit 
and  design  would  have  remained  the  same. 

3.  Some  have  thought  that  the  time  appropri- 
ated to  the  Institution  is  in  itself  holy,  because  God 
so  spoke  of  the  time  to  the  Hebrews.  But  holi- 
ness proper  can  be  predicated  only  of  the  characters 
and  actions  of  moral  beings,  and  not  of  time  any 
more  than  of  wood  and  stone.  Of  these  last  it  is 
predicated  only  in  a  figurative  sense,  meaning  that 
they  are  set  apart  for  religious  uses.  The  hohness 
of  the  Sabbath  is  to  be  found  in  its  duties  and  pur- 
poses, not  in  its  time  considered  as  time  :  though 
to  the  Jews  who  could  not  make  this  distinction, 
the  time  was  positively  set  apart,  and  called  holy 
in  correspondence  with  the  whole  frame-work  of 
the  theocrac3^  But  now  things  stand  differently. 
Everything  now  stands  upon  its  own  proper  and 
moral  basis.  And  while  the  Institution  remains  of 
perpetual  obligatioUj  the  time  or  particular  day 
once  appropriated  to  it,  may  for  urgent  reasons  be 
changed.  The  edifice  may  be  raised  up  and 
strengthened  without  being  demolished. 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  69 

4.  And  the  mode  of  conducting  or  observing  the 
Institution  has  been  changed  no  less  than  three 
times.  It  was  conducted  after  one  manner  in  Eden 
when  man  was  holy ;  after  another  manner  when 
man  had  fallen  and  been  expelled  from  Eden  : 
after  a  third  manner  among  the  Hebrews,  to  whom 
it  was  given  in  a  politico-religious  form ;  after  a 
fourth  manner  by  Christians  who  are  liberated  from 
the  burthen  of  sacrifices,  feasts  and  ceremonies. 
And  the  time  as  well  as  the  mode  may  be  changed 
without  involving  the  destruction  of  the  Institution. 
But  whatever  changes  may  occur  in  its  connectives 
or  concomitants,  the  Institution  itself  is  irrepealable, 
since  it  was  made  for  man — the  race.  It  is  grounded 
in  certain  relations  between  man  and  his  God.  Its 
manner  of  observance  and  its  time  must  be  subser- 
vient to  these  relations. 

5.  The  Institution  as  a  whole,  and  all  its  parts,  will 
be  found  adapted  to  the  different  divine  manifesta- 
tions. So  it  had  one  adaptation  in  Eden;  another 
after  the  fall ;  another  after  the  emancipation  from 
Egypt;  and  it  now  has  still  another  since  the  re- 
demptive manifestation  in  Christ.  After  the  close  of 
our  world's  history  the  Institution  will  embrace  the 

.uninterrupted  duration  and  services  of  the  heavenly 
and  eternal  state. 

6.  The  Institution  was  first  set  up  on  the  seventh 
day — or  seventh  period,  if  any  choose  so  to  read  it — 
of   creation.       Whether    we    understand    day    or 

7 


70  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

period  in  the  record,  the  proportions  and  the  au- 
thority remain  the  same.  And  on  the  seventh  day 
God  ended  his  work  which  he  had  made  ;  and  he 
rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which 
he  had  made.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day 
and  sanctified  it,  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested 
from  aJl  his  work  which  he  had  created  and  made. 
God  ended  his  ivork  and  then  sabbatized  or  rested. 
Now  the  resting  or  sabbatizing  was  one  thing — 
the  chief  thing — the  hody  and  essence  of  the  Insti- 
tution; the  time  on  lohich  he  sabbatized  was 
another  thing.  The  time  was  not  the  rest;  so  the 
time  did  not  constitute  the  Sabbath.  The  Institu- 
lution  was  set  up  by  divine  command,  standing  on 
the  divine  manifestation  of  effort  and  rest.  It  was 
established  for  man's  rehgious  improvement ;  the 
time  was  for  the  sake  of  the  rehgious  improvement, 
giving  opportunity  for  it,  as  a  platform  is  only  for 
the  sake  of  that  which  is  placed  upon  it.  In  the 
beginning  God  selected  the  best  and  highest  platform 
on  which  the  Institution  could  be  placed.  He 
^^  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it,"  not 
because  it  was  the  Institution,  but  because  "  in  it 
he  had  rested^'' — on  it  he  had  establisK'sd  >the  In- 
stitution. Thus  God  himself  in  th?  original 
appointment  in  Eden  makes  the  distinction  between 
the  Institution  and  the  time  which  it  occupies.  He 
sanctified  the  day — set  apart  the  time  for  the  pur- 
poses and  duties  of  the  Institution. 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  71 

The  great  purpose  of  the  Institution  was  for  the 
worship  of  God ;  that  man  might  remember,  ac- 
knowledge, admire,  love  and  honor  God.  And  the 
Institution  has  ever  stood  as  the  standard  of  the 
Divine  empire  on  earth — holding  high  up  to  all 
eyes  the  signals  and  emblems  of  the  Divine  autho- 
rity, goodness  and  grace.  At  first  this  standard 
stood  on  the  work  of  creation.  The  division  of 
time  into  weeks  was  monumental  of  the  Divine 
effort  of  creation,  and  so  it  was  auxilliary  to  the 
contemplations,  study  and  services  belonging  to 
the  Sabbath  Institution. 

Our  first  parents  naturally  felt  that  they  ought 
to  worship  God ;  but  they  did  not  know  what 
measure  of  time  should  thus  be  specially  uninter- 
ruptedly devoted.  The  time,  therefore,  was  a 
matter  of  special  positive  appointment,  while  the 
Institution  in  its  substance  was  moral.  Hence  the 
identity  of  the  Institution  and  the  time  given  to  its 
observance,  or  the  Sabbath  Institution  and  the 
Sabbath  day,  for  which  some  strenuously  contend, 
cannot  be  maintained  without  mixing  and  confound- 
ing things  that  should  be  kept  distinct. 

7.  During  the  early  ages,  the  day  that  was 
kept  commenced  with  the  first  shining  of  the  stars 
and  ended  of  course  when  the  stars  again  appeared. 
To  those  who  lived  in  a  particular  zone,  embrac- 
ing a  few  provinces,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
ancients,  this  mode   of  reckoning   was  the  most 


72  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

I 

natural,  simple  and  convenient.  When  time  was 
measured  by  rude  dials,  and  the  inter-relations  of 
different  zones  and  remote  nations  had  not  neces- 
sitated another  mode,  it  was  best  to  measure  the 
days  by  the  appearance  of  the  heavenly  lumina- 
ries. But  such  a  mode  manifestly  could  not  be 
employed  during  the  whole  history  of  the  world. 
There  are  some  zones  in  which  it  would  be  utterly 
impracticable,  where  men  experience  six  months 
day  and  six  months  night. 

The  spherical  form  of  the  earth,  its  diurnal  re- 
volutions, the  great  changes  in  the  length  of  days 
in  different  latitudes,  the  distant  emigration  of 
tribes  and  nations,  and  the  voyaging  of  multitudes, 
must,  in  the  changes  of  time  which  they  produce, 
utterly  destroy  the  identity  of  Sabbath  time,  and 
so  certify  and  establish  the  distinction  which  we 
have  mentioned,  between  the  Institution  and  the 
time  appropriated  to  it.  Every  day  occupies 
twenty-four  hours  with  its  beginnings  and  endings 

on  the  same  latitude so  that  identity  of  time  in 

different  longitude  is  utterly  impossible. 

And  we  might  also  feel  assured  that  the  day  is 
not  identical  with  the  Institution  when  we' reflect 
that  the  Institution  with  all  its  privileges  and 
duties,  cannot  be  affected  by  a  change  of  the  day. 
Such  a  change  would  not  sacrifice  any  amount  of 
time,  nor  any  truth,  nor  any  fact,  nor  any  oppor- 
tunity, nor  any  motive,  nor  any  ability,  nor  any 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  73 

memorial  significancy  ;  for  the  week  not  the  seventh 
day  is  monumental  of  creation.  We  shall  speak 
of  the  change  of  the  day  in  its  proper  place. 

And  the  word  Sahbath  was  employed  by  the 
Hebrews  to  designate  other  religious  appointments 
as  well  as  to  designate  the  Divine  Institution  of 
which  we  are  speaking.  The  word  was  applied 
to  a  particular  year  marked  with  certain  duties, 
called  the  Sabbatical  year ;  Lev.  xxv.  2,  4.  It  was 
also  applied  to  the  Jewish  festivals  indifferently  or 
as  a  whole  ;  Lev.  xix.  3_30.  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  word  is  used  to  denote  the  eternal  rest 
and  services  of  heaven ;  Heb.  iv.  9,  10,  11. 

8.  The  Jews  through  all  their  history  continued 
to  observe,  as  of  course  they  still  do,  the  seventh 
day  of  the  week  as  Sabbath  time,  though  it  is  npt 
certain,  from  the  chasms  in  their  national  records 
and  the  breaks  in  their  chronological  tables  occa- 
sioned by  the  periods  of  their  captivity,  that  that 
day  was  always,  if  ever,  the  identical  seventh  day 
reckoned  from  the  first  seventh  day  in  Eden. 

9.  Whether 'the  Institution  had  been  so  long 
lost  to  the  Israelites  in  Egypt  and  consequently 
the  day  devoted  to  the  Institution  and  even  the 
division  of  time  into  weeks,  may  to  some  seem 
improbable ;  but  from  all  the  facts  adduced  when 
we  were  considering  that  part  of  the  history  of  the 
Institution,  we  are  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that 
all  these  were  so  lost.     We  think  that  the  ancient 

7* 


74  THE    SABBATH  INSTITUTION. 

mode  of  reckoning,  and  hence  the  exact  reckoning 
point,  perished  in  company  with  the  whole  body 
of  their  religious  privileges,  ordinances  and  duties. 
The  evidence  of  this  appeared  in  Part  First. 

Nor  was  it   necessary  that   the    exact  ancient 
reckoning  point  should  be  preserved  in  order  to 
the  full  integrity  of  the  Sabbath  Institution  which 
was  restored  to  them.     For,  from  whatever  point 
the  reckoning  should  start  upon  the  restoration  of 
the  Institution,  provided  they  kept  every  seventh 
day  as  they  ought,  they  certainly  kept  the  Insti- 
tution, and  in  that  measure  of  time  that  memorial- 
ized the  work  of  creation.     But  whether  the  exact 
ancient  chronological  reckoning  was  lost  or  not,  it 
must  have  been  greatly  confused  and  rendered 
uncertain,  so  that  they  could  not  be  sure  that  it 
had  been  incorruptibly  preserved  ;  and   hence  if 
that  time  and  the  Institution  had  been  identical, 
they  must  have  been  sorely  puzzled  and  quite  con- 
founded upon  the  question  of  unbroken  succession. 
We  must  remember  that  to  the  Jews  was  given 
the  Sabbath  Institution  in  a  theocratic  or  politico- 
religious  form.      Indeed,  to  them,  as  we  have  pre- 
viously shown,  the  whole  Decalogue  was  positive, 
as  well  as  moral.     To  this,  the  exact  v/ords  of  the 
Decalogue  as  found  in  Ex.  xx.  2-17,  and  in  Deut. 
V.  6-21,  fully  testify  ;  in  both  copies,  reasons,  pro- 
mises, and  threatenings  are  found  in   connection 
with  the  second,  third,  fourth  and  fifth  commands. 


THE  TIME   APPROPRIATED.  75 

which  were  peculiarly  applicable  lo  the  Hebrews 
as  a  nation ;  the  obligations  were  positive  and 
national. 

10.  It  may  be  necessary  here  to  observe  more 
fully  than  we  have  yet  done,  that,  during  the 
period  over  which  we  have  passed,  three  different 
modes  of  keeping  the  Institution  obtained.  By 
our  first  parents  in  Eden  it  was  kept  with  one 
order  of  duties,  in  which  there  were  no  sacrifices, 
as  these  would  then  have  had  no  significancy. 
By  man  after  the  fall  it  was  kept  with  another  class 
of  duties,  in  which  sacrifices  and  confessions  had 
a  necessary  place,  as  in  the  case  of  Cain  and  Abel, 
or  in  the  instances  mentioned  of  the  Patriarchs. 
By  the  Hebrews,  as  a  nation,  after  their  dehver- 
ance,  it  was  kept  with  yet  another  order  of  servi- 
ces, in  which  not  only  the  ancient  sacrifices  were 
retained  but  some  new  ones  were  added  ;  also  the 
reading  of  the  law  and  certain  pecuhar  tabernacle 
services.  And  under  the  Christian  dispensation 
we  shall  find  that  it  must  be  observed  with  still 
other  and  quite  peculiar  services,  praying,  prais- 
ing, preaching,  laboring  for  the  conversion  of  the 
perishing. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  distinctions  exist  between 
the  Sabbath  Institution,  and  its  time  and  its  man- 
ner of  observance  ;  these  may  be  modified  and 
changed,  while  the  Institution  remains  unabrogated 
and  irrepealabl^. 


76  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 


CHAPTER    11. 

TIME  APPEOPEIATED   TO  THE  INSTITUTION   UNDER  THE 
FINAL    OR    REDEMPTIVE  DISPENSATION. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  inquire  after  the  time 
devoted  to  the  Institution  under  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation. 

1.  While  pursuing  Part  First,  we  learned  that 
the  Christian  world  generally  have  firmly  main- 
tained the  Institution  and  have  appropriated  to  it 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  or  as  the  day  was  usually 
called  for  several  centuries,  as  it  is  still  by  many, 
"The  Lord's  Day"  That  is,  Christians  as  a 
body  have  never  believed  that  the  Institution  was 
abrogated  with  the  Hebrew  economy,  and  from 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  they  have  kept  the  first 
day  of  the  week  as  Sabbath  time.  Those  holding 
different  views  have  always  been  comparatively 
few  ;  and  most  of  them  have  not  stood  firmly  on 
the  Christian  platform. 

We  will  first  speak  of  the  fact  of  the  change  of 
the  day,  and  second,  of  the  authority  and  reasons 
for  the  change. 

(a.)  2.  After  Christ's  death  and  resurrection, 
which  closed  the  old  positive  economy,  and  opened 
the  new  moral  dispensation,  we  never  find  him  in 
the  synagogue  or  even  meeting  with  his  disciples 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  77 

to  observe  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  Bat  he  did  meet 
his  disciples  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  On 
this  day  he  achieved  the  conquest  of  death  and 
the  victory  over  the  grave.  On  this  same  day  he 
met  his  disciples  four  times  ;  Matt,  xxviii.  9  ;  Luke 
xxiv.  18-34 ;  John  xx.  19-23. 

And  since  among  the  Jews,  when  one  event 
happened  a  week  after  another,  they  called  the 
period  "  an  eight  days,"  including,  as  was  their- 
custom,  both  the  days  on  which  the  events  oc- 
curred, we  find  that  Christ  met  his  disciples  for 
worship  on  the  next  first  day  of  the  week ;  John 
XX.  26. 

And  if  it  be  true,  as  many  think,  not  without 
reason,  that  the  period  called  by  the  Jews  '^  forty 
days"  is  a  period  of  six  weeks  expressed  in  round 
convenient  numbers,  it  follows  that  Christ's  ascen- 
sion was  on  the  first  day  of  the  week ;  Acts  i.  3. 
And  certain  it  is  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
marked  by  the  glorious  outpouring  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  and  the  first  great  revival  of  Pentecost. 

3.  The  apostles,  disciples  and  first  churches 
are  found  in  the  habit  of  holding  their  stated  ap- 
pointments for  public  social  worship  on  this  same 
day.  "  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  the 
disciples  came  together  to  break  bread,  Paul 
preached  to  them;"  Acts  xx. 7.  This,  too,  was 
the  day  appropriated  to  Christian  charity  ;  1  Cor. 
xvi.  1,  3. 


78  TEE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

4.  The  apostle  John  mentions  this  day  as  '^the 
Lord's  day :"  '^1  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's 
day  ;"  Rev.  i.  10.  That  this  phrase  realJy  sig- 
nifies the  first  day  of  the  week  now  appropriated 
to  the  Sabbatical  Institution,  is  evident  not  only 
from  the  natural  sense  of  the  words,  but  also  from 
contemporary  and  other  writers.  John  uses  the 
phrase  as  if  it  was  well  understood  ;  and  so  it  was. 
Ignatius,  who  was  educated  under  John,  and  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  Peter  and  Paul,  and 
who  was  pastor  of  the  church  in  Antioch  for  forty 
years — from  about  the  year  70  A.  D. — this  Igna- 
tius calls  the  first  day  of  the  week  "  the  Lord's 
day,  the  queen  and  prince  of  all  days,"  and  says, 
^^  Let  every  friend  of  Christ  celebrate  the  Lord's 
day."  Clement,  the  learned  teacher  of  Alexan- 
dria in  the  second  century,  says,  ''  A  Christian, 
according  to  the  command  of  the  Gospel,  observes 
the  Lord's  day,  thereby  glorifying  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ ;"  and  "  the  Lord's  day  is  the  eighth 
day."  Chrysostom  says,  "it  was  called  the 
Lord's  day  because  the  Lord  arose  from  the  dead 
on  this  day." 

And  that  the  first  day  of  the  week  was  the  uni- 
versal and  established  day  of  social  pubhc  worship 
among  the  churches  planted  by  the  Apostles,  we 
may  be  certified  from  what  we  find  in  1  Cor.  xvi. 
1,  2;  "Now,  concerning  the  collection  for  the 
saints,  as  I  have  jriven  order  to  the  churches  of 


THE  TIME  APPROPRIATED.  79 

Galatia,  even  so  do  ye.  Upon  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store  as 
God  hath  prospered  him,  that  there  be  no  gather- 
ings when  I  come." 

The  weekly  contributions  were  to  obviate  the 
time  and  trouble  of  extra  gatherings ;  and  these 
were  attended  to  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  by  all 
the  churches  in  Greece  and  in  Asia.  Such  was 
the  established  order  under  the  apostles. 

Ireneeus,  a  disciple  of  Polycarp  who  was  then 
associated  with  the  apostle  John,  says,  "  On  the 
Lord's  day  every  one  of  us  Christians  keeps  Sab- 
bath, meditating  on  the  law  and  rejoicing  in  the 
works  of  God."  Tertullian,  one  of  the  most  learned 
of  the  early  Christians,  also  says,  "We  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  Sabbath  (seventh  day\ :  the 
Lord's  day  is  the  Christian's  solemnity."  Some 
have  had  the  presumption  to  assert  that  the  change 
of  day  was  effected  by  the  emperor  Constantino, 
who  reigned  in  the  fourth  century.  Tertullian  was 
born  more  than  a  century  before  Constantino  ;  and 
the  other  writers  just  quoted  flourished  in  imme- 
diate connection  with  the  Apostles,  some  being 
educated  by  them. 

The  Roman  persecutors  in  the  examination  of 
their  Christian  victims  used  to  ask  them;  ^'  Hast 
thou  kept  the  Lord's  day  ? " — for  this  distinguished 
them  as  Christians — to  which  they  rephed ;  "  I  am 
a  Christian ;  I  cannot  omit  it." 


80  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

Justin  Martyr,  born  in  the  year  eighty-nine  or 
ninety, — before  the  death  of  the  apostle  John — and 
who  preached  in  Egypt,  Asia  and  Italy,  gives  in 
his  Apology  a  minute  account  of  the  Christian  day 
of  worship,  and  says;  "On  the  day  called — by 
you  Romans — Sunday,  there  is  a  meeting  in  one 
place  of  all  the  Christians  who  live  either  in  the 
towns  or  in  the  country."  Of  the  word  "  Sunday'' 
it  will  be  recollected  that  we  spoke  and  gave  a  full 
account  in  Part  First. 

Of  course  the  Jews  everywhere  still  continued 
to  keep  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  except  a 
party  of  partial  dissenters  called  Ebionites,  of  whom 
Theodoret  says,  ^^They  keep  the  Sabbath  according 
to  the  Jewish  law,  and  sanctify  the  Lord's  day  in 
like  manner  as  we  do."  Says  Prof.  Stuart ; 
"  This  gives  a  good  historical  view  of  the  state  of 
things  in  the  early  ages  of  the  church.  The  zea- 
lots for  the  law  wished  the  Jewish  sabbath  to  be 
observed  as  w^ell  as  the  Lord's  day ;  for  about  the 
latter  there  never  appears  to  have  been  any  ques- 
tion among  any  class  of  Christians  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  discover.  The  early  Christians  one 
and  all  of  them,  held  the  first  day  of  the  week  to 
be  sacred." 

Theophilus  of  Antioch,  about  the  year  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-two,  says  :  "  Both  custom  and  reason 
challenge  from  us  that  we  should  honor  the  Lord's 
day,  seeing  on  that  it  was  that  our  Lord  Jesus  com- 


THE    TIME    APPROPRIATED.  81 

pleted  his  resurrection  from  the  dead."  Dionysius 
of  Corinth,  in  writing  to  the  Romans  in  the  year 
one  hundred  and  seventy,  says  :  "We  celebrate 
the  Lord's  day,"  and  mentions  what  was  done 
"  while  they  were  keeping  the  Lord's  day  holy." 
Barnabas,  who,  if  not  a  companion  of  the  apostles, 
lived  in  the  apostolic  age,  says :  "  We  keep  the 
eighth  day  as  a  joyful  holy  day,  on  which  day  also 
Jesus  arose  from  the  dead."  Ambrose  says ; 
"  The  Lord's  day  is  sacred,  or  consecrated  by  the 
resurrection  of  Christ."  Augustine  says;  ^'The 
Lord's  day  was  by  the  resurrection  declared  to 
Christians  ;  and  from  that  very  time  it  began  to  be 
celebrated  as  the  Christian  festival."  Athanasius 
says  ;  "  The  Lord  transferred  the  Sabbath  to  the 
Lord's  day." 

And  Eusebius,born  about  the  year  two  hundred 
and  seventy,  the  ancient  historian  of  the  church, 
whom  Mosheim  styles  '^a  man  of  vast  reading 
and  erudition,"  is  very  explicit,  and  asserts  that 
"the  resurrection  day,  or  Lord's  day  was  observed 
throughout  the  whole  world:"  and  again;  "the 
Word — Christ — by  the  new  covenant  translated 
and  transferred  the  feast  of  the  Sabbath  to  the  morn- 
ing light,  and  gave  us  the  symbol  of  true  rest, 
namely,  the  saving  Lord's  day  ;  the  first  (day)  of 

the  hght in  which  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  after 

all  his  labors  among  men,  obtained  the  victory  over 

death,  and  passed  the   portals  of  heaven  having 

8 


S2  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

achieved  a  work  superior  to  the  six  days'  crea- 
tion." 

Other  authorities  might  be  given,  if  it  v\^ere  ne- 
cessary and  they  would  not  too  much  swell  the 
bulk  of  one  volume.  We  cannot  however  refrain 
from  quoting  one  paragraph  from  Neander,  than 
whom  there  never  has  lived  a  historian  more  dis- 
tinguished for  his  talents,  accomplishments,  re- 
searches, insight,  and  impartiahty.  In  speaking 
of  the  apostle  John  and  his  ministry  as  the  closing 
point  of  the  apostolic  age,  he  says;  '^<^The  consti- 
tution of  the  churches  of  Lesser  Asia  ^  Asia  Minor,) 
as  it  appeared  soon  after  the  age  of  John  in  the 
time  of  Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  was  altogether 
different  from  that  which  originated  in  the  Pauhne 
age,  in  which  these  churches  were  founded,  and 
we  are  obliged  to  presuppose  some  intervening  in- 
fluences by  which  this  alteration  was  produced. 
Originally  these  churches  formed,  as  we  have  seen 
above,  a  full  opposition  against  the  Jewish  Christian 
(Ebionitish)  form  of  culture.  They  had  no  day 
excepting  Sunday  devoted  to  religious  celebration  ; 
no  kind  of  yearly  feasts :  but  afterwards  we  find 
among  them  a  paschal  feast  transferred  from  the 
Jews,  and  receiving  a  Christian  meaning,  though 
imitating  the  Jewish  reckoning  as  to  the  time  of  its 
celebration,  to  which  probably  a  feast  of  Pentecost 
was  annexed."     These  authorities  will  suffice. 

5.  The  change  of  day  was  made  by  the  author- 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  83 

ity  of  Christ,  who  as  ^'Lord  of  the  Sabbath"  was 
empowered  to  effect  such  changes  as  he  pleased. 
Indeed  he  was  the  Creator  of  the  world,  and  so  the 
Author  of  the  Institution. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Christ  did  not  set 
up  the  first  churches  or  even  set  up  the  new  dis- 
pensation as  a  whole,  in  person — this  he  left  for 
and  commissioned  his  disciples  to  do.  Not  till  after 
his  resurrection  was  a  single  Gentile  evangehzed. 
The  first  spread  of  his  kingdom  from  the  Jewish 
enclosure  into  the  Gentile  world  is  recorded  in 
Acts  X.  After  his  resurrection  he  committed  to 
the  Apostles  "the  things  pertaining  to  the  king- 
dom." He  said,  "as  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even 
so  send  I  you,"  and  breathing  on  them,  added, 
'^Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost ;  whosesoever  sins 
ye  remit  they  are  remitted,  and  whosesoever  sins 
ye  retain  they  are  retained:"  thus  he  gave  to  the 
Apostles,  in  the  highest  sense,  the  power  of  the 
"  keys,"  the  power  of  loosing  and  binding,  that  is, 
of  commanding  and  forbidding,  of  ordering  and  es- 
tablishing the  new  dispensation,  of  preaching  the 
gospel  to  the  Gentiles  when  the  time  should  come, 
/  for  Christ  never  preached  to  a  Gentile  and  never 
baptized)  of  planting  churches  and  ordering  their 
form  and  services,  which  work  they  accomplished 
agreeable  to  promise.  We  are  certain  that  Christ 
thus  empowered  them  to  <^^set  things  in  order,"  and 
that  they  did  in  accordance  with  the  Commission, 


84  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

though  all  that  Christ  said  to  them  and  all  that 
they  performed  is  not  recorded  for  our  perusal. 

6.  In  regard  to  the  change  of  the  day  for  the  In- 
stitution we  have  all  that  we  could  expect  or  wish 
from  the  nature  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  and 
certainly  all  that  we  need.  We  have  substantially 
«^the  law  and  the  testimony."  We  have  the  law 
and  authority  in  Christ,  and  bestowed  expressly 
by  him  on  his  Apostles  or  Legates.  We  have  the 
testimony,  in  Christ's  example  after  his  resurrec- 
tion, in  the  examples  and  words  of  the  apostles, 
and  in  the  order  established  by  the  apostles  in  the 
first  churches.  Does  any  thinking  man  want  more 
than  this  ?  Can  he  expect  any  more  from  the 
nature  of  the  dispensation,  and  from  the  time  and 
manner  in  which  it  was  set  up  ? 

7.  Some  have  objected  that  no  part  of  the  New 
Testament  is  devoted  to  the  full  account  and  reasons 
of  this  change  ;  as  if  the  New  Testament  was  and 
ought  to  be  a  full-drawn-system  of  didactic  theology 
and  statute  book  of  Church  construction,  containing 
explicit  repeals  and  enactments,  with  time  and 
place  ;  instead  of  being,  as  it  is,  simply  the  life  of 
Christ  and  an  epitome  or  rather  a  specimen'  of  the 
labors  of  his  Apostles  with  a  few  of  their  letters  to 
the  first  churches.  Many  things  of  special  note 
and  consequence  are  not  discussed  in  it ;  only  the 
principles  are  given  ;  this  is  the  case  in  reference 
to  many  of  the  great  moral  questions  of  the  present 


THE    TIME    APPROPRIATED.  85 

day,  equal  rights,  temperance,  slavery  and  many 
others.  It  contains  no  minute  statutes  in  regard  to 
the  time,  place  and  formula  of  Baptism  or  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  or  of  Ordinations,  or  of  the  organi- 
zation, duties,  offices  and  management  of  churches. 
The  New  Testament  deals  in  general  principles 
and  not  in  statute  laws.  In  this  it  is  distinguished 
from  the  Law  given  by  Moses.  And  in  regard  to  the 
Sabbath  Institution  we  find  more  in  it  than  we  find 
about  many  other  very  important  things  :  for  we 
find,  as  we  have  shown,  the  change  of  the  time  and 
of  the  manner  of  observance,  and  we  find  both 
<^the  law  and  the  testimony"  for  the  changes. 

8.  The  reasons  for  the  changes  both  of  time  and 
manner  of  observance  are  at  least  three ;  First; 
To  commemorate  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  the  full 
achievement  of  man's  redemption  and  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  dispensation  or  kingdom,  which  was 
indeed  and  in  a  glorious  sense  to  the  whole  world 
like  the  creating  of  '^  new  heavens  and  a  new 
earth."  This  day  witnessed  the  greatest  of  God's 
manifestations  to  the  world,  and  so  was  styled  the 
Lord's  Day.  And  henceforth  the  Institution  or- 
dained for  the  social  public  devotions  and  worship 
of  mankind  stood  upon  this  day,  and  was  observed 
not  in  a  ritual,  but  in  a  spiritual  manner,  corres- 
ponding with  the  new,  free,  evangehcal  dispensa- 
tion. Second;  To  prevent  an  overlapping  of  the  old 
and  new  dispensations,  to  prevent  putting  a  piece 
8* 


86  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

of  new  cloth  upon  an  old  garment,  or  the  new  wine 
into  old  bottles,  to  prevent  the  commingling  of 
things  positive  and  things  moral,  or  the  union  of 
what  was  politico-religious  with  what  was  spiritual; 
of  which  there  was  so  much  danger  as  was  evinced 
in  the  case  of  the  Ebionites.  Says  Neander :  "In 
the  first  Christian  communities  which  were  formed 
among  the  Jews,  various  discordant  notions  of  re- 
ligion were  mingled  ;  there  were  many  errors 
arising  from  the  prevailing  Jewish  mode  of  think- 
ing, some  of  which  by  degrees  were  corrected,  in 
the  case  of  those  who  surrendered  themselves  to 
the  expansive  and  purifying  influence  of  the  Chris- 
tian spirit ;  but  in  those  over  whom  that  spirit 
could  not  exert  such  power,  these  errors  formed  the 
germ  of  the  later  Jewish-Christian  ( Ebionitish ) 
doctrine  which  set  itself  in  direct  hostility  to  the 
pure  gospel." 

Farther  he  says  ;  "  Among  the  Gentiles  the 
free  spiritual  worship  of  God  developed  itself  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  Judaism  and  the  attempt  to  mingle 
Judaism  and  Christianity.  According  to  the  doc- 
trine of  the  apostle  Paul,  the  Mosaic  law  in  its 
whole  extent  had  lost  its  value  as  such  to  Chris- 
tians ;  nothing  could  be  a  rule  binding  on  Chris- 
tians on  account  of  its  being  contained  in  the  Mosaic 
law;  but  whatever  was  binding  as  a  law  for  the 
Christian  life  must  as  such  derive  its  authority  from 
another  quarter.    Hence  a  transference  of  the  Old 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  87 

Testament  command  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath 
to  the  New  Testament  was  not  admissible." 

Again  he  says;  <^' Christians  did  not  choose  the 
Sabbath  which  the  Jewish  Christians  celebrated,  in 
order  to  avoid  the  risk  of  mingling  Judaism  and 
Christianity,  and  because  another  event  was  more 
closely  associated  with  Christian  sentiments.  The 
sufferings  and  resurrection  of  Christ  appeared  as 
the  centre  point  of  Christian  knowledge  and  prac- 
tice;  since  his  resurrection  was  viewed  as  the 
foundation  of  all  Christian  joy  and  hope,  it  was 
natural  that  the  day  which  was  connected  with  the 
remembrance  of  this  event  should  be  especially  de- 
voted to  Christian  communion,  planting  and  train- 
ing." 

Thus,  in  the  natural  gradual  setting  up  of  the 
new  dispensation  and  the  formation  of  Christian 
churches  out  of  the  free  nature  and  elements  of 
the  new,  evangelical  Christian  hfe,  the  Divine 
Institution  of  rest  and  worship  was  quietly  but 
authoritatively  under  the  commission  and  labors  of 
the  Apostles  transferred  from  its  Hebrew  platform 
of  time  and  manner  of  observance  to  the  new  plat- 
form of  time  and  manner  of  celebration  which  cor- 
responded with  the  last  and  most  glorious  divine 
manifestation.  In  dropping  the  old  positive,  ritual, 
politico-religious  dispensation,  it  was  necesssary 
too,  among  other  things,  to  drop  both  the  time  and 
mode  of  keeping  the  Jewish  Sabbath — and  to  drop 


88  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

the  mode  they  must  drop  the  time — while,  how- 
ever, the  Institution  in  its  essence  and  design  was 
to  be  preserved,  and  with  new  and  higher  associ- 
ations be  perpetuated  to  the  whole  race,  And  the 
best  possible  way  to  drop  from  an  old  appointment 
what  had  been  once  necessary  as  a  frame-work 
for  its  support,  and  what  was  positive,  local  and 
semi-political — and  which  would  therefore  be  tena- 
ciously held  to  their  final  injury  by  many  of  narrow 
conceptions  from  ignorance  or  phariseeism — while 
there  should  be  retained  all  that  was  moral,  uni- 
versal and  substantial,  would  be  to  quietly  but 
authoritatively  transfer  it  from  the  old  frame-work 
to  a  higher  and  more  commanding  position  of  as- 
sociation and  to  effect  the  change  when  the  great 
event  and  work  should  occur  to  give  to  the  ap- 
pointment a  new  and  higher  ground  or  platform. 
And  precisely  such  was  the  course  pursued  by 
Christ  and  his  Apostles  in  regard  to  this  Institu- 
tion ;  a  course  which  evinced  the  greatest  wisdom 
and  the  greatest  mercy. 

Third.  The  Sabbath  Institution,  which  was  or- 
dained to  embrace  man's  social,  public,  religious 
themes  of  study,  songs  of  praise,  sacrifices  of  hand 
and  of  heart,  and  his  thanksgivings  and  prayers, 
must  necessarily  embrace  every  new  feature  of 
God's  manifestations.  First,  in  Eden,  it  em- 
braced the  work  of  creation  ;  second,  after  the  fall, 
it  had  added  to  it  the  promise  of  mercy;  third,  it 


THE   TIME   APPROPRIATED.  89 

had  associated  with  it  to  the  Hebrews  the  work  of 
their  emancipation  and  its  restoration  to  them  ; 
and  now,  fourth  and  finally,  it  must  take  on  the 
memory  of  redemption  by  "  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  died  for  our  sins  and  rose  again  for  our  justi- 
fication ;"  hence  the  day  now  employed  for  its 
celebration  is  called  the  Lord's  Day,  and  is  filled 
with  the  thoughts  and  themes  of  the  Gospel  in 
addition  to  all  that  it  previously  embraced. 

9.  Now,  the  Divine  Institution  stands  thus  :— 
the  measure  of  time  by  weeks  commemorates  the 
week  and  work  of  creation  ;  the  Sabbatizing  one 
day  in  seven  imitates  the  Divine  example,  though 
identity  of  time  reckoned  from  Eden  is  impossible 
to  all  men,  and,  in  ftict,  is  altogether  unnecessary 
as  it  is  impracticable.  The  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day  commemorates  redemption,  and  the 
opening  of  the  new  kingdom  or  dispensation  de- 
signed for  all  in  all  time.  So,  the  Institution  now 
occupies  a  clear,  high,  commanding  operative 
Christian  position  and  rank.  It  is  vastly  more 
expressive  and  better  adapted  to  our  condition,  in- 
struction and  salvation  than  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
ever  was  or  ever  could  have  been.  The  Jewish 
had  a  theocratic  type  and  stand-point.  The 
Christian  has  a  spiritual  type  and  a  world-wide 
platform. 


PART    THIRD. 

THE  MANNER   OF  OBSERVING  THE 
INSTITUTION. 

CHAPTER    I. 

DIFFEEEXT    MODES     OF    OBSERVING   THE    INSTITUTION 
UNDER    THE    EAKLY    DISPENSATION. 

1.  In  the  third  and  final  grand  division  of  our 
subject  we  are  to  consider  the  manner  of  observ- 
ing the  Divine  Institution.  In  the  first  chapter  we 
are  to  speak  of  its  observance  under  the  early  dis- 
pensations. 

2.  We  must  remember  that  the  manner  of  ob- 
serving the  Institution  constitutes  its  essence  to  us, 
its  practical  value  to  the  world.  The  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath  has  expressly  said,  that  the  Institution 
was  made  for  man — for  his  use  and  improvement, 
for  progress  in  holy  knowledge  and  the  culture  of 
the  heart.  It  is  for  all  men,  the  race,  under  all 
circumstances,  in  all  ages.  It  is  adapted  to  man's 
condition  and  necessities  as  a  creature  of  God,  a 
probationer,  a  candidate  for  eternity.  And  it  stands 
associated  with  all  the  great  manifestations  of  God 
to  the  race.      Hence  certain  chano^es,  of  which  we 


MODES    OF   OBSERVANCE.  91 

have  spoken,  have  been  effected  in  accomodation 
to  the  different  manifestations  of  God  to  the  world, 
and  suited  to  man's  changed  relations  to  God  and 
his  new  circumstances — changes  that  have  added 
weight,  worth,  brightness,  and  glory  to  the  original 
appointment. The  manner  of  observing  the  In- 
stitution has  been  changed  three  times. 

3.  The  original  Institution  was  given  to  our  first 
parents  in  their  innocency  in  Eden.  In  our  pri- 
mitive holiness  and  righteousness,  our  heavenly 
Father  saw  it  necessary  for  us  to  devote  a  portion 
of  our  feelings,  thoughts  and  meditations  in  public 
devotions  and  praise.  Hence,  by  example  and 
command  he  instituted  the  Sabbath.  And  the 
first  day  of  man's  existence  was  devoted  to  this 
Institution.  No  sooner  had  our  first  parents  felt 
the  full  consciousness  of  being,  and  made  the  first 
intelligent  survey  of  this  wonderful  world,  their 
new  abode,  than  they  were  called  by  the  Divine 
voice,  and  by  inward  impulse  as  well,  to  the  joy- 
ous duty  of  adoration  and  praise  to  the  great  Crea- 
tor. From  their  own  wonderful  being,  physical, 
mental,  spiritual,  from  the  beauties  of  Eden,  and 
from  all  the  visible  glories  of  the  external  world, 
as  these  all  shone  fresh  from  the  Creator's  hand, 
they  found  abundant  causes  and  incentives  for 
devout  contemplation  and  holy  praise. 

How  beautiful  and  sublime  that  first  Sabbath  ! 
They  needed  no  written  law.     They  saw  God  in 


92  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

bis  works,  for  their  eyes  were  not  yet  blinded. 
They  offered  no  slain  sacrifices,  for  as  yet  there 
was  no  sin  to  require  the  shedding  of  blood. — 
Theirs  was  the  pure  Paradisiacal  worship  of  self- 
acting,  unstained  hearts.  The  image  of  God 
within  them  recognized  the  attributes  of  God  in 
all  around  them,  so  that  knowledge  shone  from 
every  object,  and  hence  the  incense  of  grateful 
praise  rose  spontaneously  from  their  pure,  ardent 
bosoms.  They  felt  that  the  Sabbath  Institution 
was  good  for  them.  By  it  they  were  made  wiser, 
happier  and  better.  Would  that  they  had  so  heeded 
this  blessed,  restraining  Institution  that  they  had 
never  sinned. 

4.  But,  in  our  fall,  God,  in  great  mercy,  pre- 
served to  us  this  Institution.  Indeed,  we  needed 
it  now  more  than  in  our  state  of  innocency.  Man 
needed  it  now  as  a  positive  Institution  ;  whereas, 
before  the  fall  it  was  held  as  a  moral  one — positive 
at  first  only  in  the  matter  of  its  time. 

And  now  the  Institution  was  to  be  observed  in 
a  different  manner,  or  to  be  filled  with  a  new  class 
of  duties.  Now,  they  had  need  to  ofl^er  confes- 
sions and  supplications.  Now,  their  thanksgivings 
must  be  mingled  with  penitent  tears.  They  also 
found  it  necessary,  doubtless  by  specific  Divine 
command,  though  we  have  no  explicit  record  of 
the  appointment,  to  erect  altars  and  offer  bleeding 
victims  upon  them, through  faith,  in  which  as  types 


MODES   OF   OBSERVANCE.  93 

of  a  promised  Sacrificer  and  Redeemer,  they  re- 
ceived forgiveness  and  found  mercy.  This  cer- 
tainly seems  evident  from  the  case  of  Abel  and 
Cain. 

And  this  manner  of  observing  the  Institution 
continued  in  substance  through  both  the  antedilu- 
vian and  patriarchal  ages,  till  from  the  growing 
perverseness  of  men's  hearts  and  especially  from 
the  civil  oppressions,  religious  prohibitions  and 
persecutions  practised  by  the  Egyptians  over  the 
people  of  God  chosen  for  the  world's  sake  but  now 
enslaved,  this  Institution  was  lost — lost  to  the  Isra- 
elites and  lost  to  all  the  world. 

5.  Hence,  by  Divine  special  intervention,  it 
was  restored  to  the  emancipated  Israelites,  and 
enjoined  with  such  peculiar,  positive,  theocratic 
sanctions  and  commands  as  should  preserve  it  from 
ever  again  being  destroyed  or  falling  into  desue- 
tude. And  the  manner  of  its  observance  was  now 
again  changed,  made  more  full,  particular  and 
stringent.  To  the  old  prescribed  sacrifices  were 
added  certain  new  ones  ;  and  in  addition  to  family, 
social  and  public  worship,  there  were  enjoined 
certain  duties,  sacrifices  and  offerings  that  were 
national  and  peculiar  to  the  theocracy.  There 
were  tabernacle  services  conducted  by  the  priest- 
hood, and  the  reading  of  the  law,  now  for  the  first 
time  given  to  the  world  in  a  written  form. 

And  this  mode  of  observing  the  Institution  con- 
9 


94  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

tinned  through  the  positive  appointed  Hebrew 
economy  until  the  new,  moral  Christian  dispensa- 
tion, when  the  theocratic  order  gave  place  to  the 
spiritual,  when  shadows  and  disciplinary  rules 
gave  place  to  the  substance. 


CHAPTER    II. 

MANNER    OF    OBSERVING    THE   INSTITUTION    UNDER    THE 
CHRISTIAN    DISPENSATION. 

1.  We  come  now,  in  the  last  place,  to  the  more 
practical  and  personal  view  of  this  precious  Divine 
Institution,  the  manner  of  its  observance  under  the 
present  Christian  dispensation.  The  dispensation 
of  the  law  has  now  given  place  to  the  dispensation 
of  the  Spirit,  whose  rule  and  administration  con- 
sists in  writing  the  law  in  our  hearts  and  causing 
us  to  worship  God  our  Saviour  in  spirit  and  on 
purely  moral  grounds.  The  Sabbath  Institution 
now  again  assumes  its  paradisiacal  rank  as  a 
purely  moral  requisition,  and  is  binding  on>  every 
member  of  the  human  family  by  virtue  of  the  rela- 
tions which  we  sustain  to  God  as  our  Creator,  Re- 
deemer and  Sanctifier.  Its  duties  now,  instead  of 
being  ritual  and  theocratic  as  formerly,  when  the 
world  was  under  a  schoolmaster,  are   eminently 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER    OF    OBSERVANCE.         95 

spiritual,  dictated  by  the  Gospel  and  grace  of  the 
great  Teacher. 

2.  It  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  Divine  requirement. 
It  is  an  Institution  ordained  of  God.  God  esta- 
blished it  for  his  own  glory  and  our  good.  It  is 
no  more  optional  with  us  whether  we  will  observe 
it  or  not,  because  of  its  moral  basis  and  structure, 
than  it  is  optional  with  us  whether  we  will  blas- 
pheme, or  steal,  or  murder.  Its  neglect  and  viola- 
tion on  our  part  is  an  injury  inflicted  upon  ourselves, 
upon  our  fellows  and  upon  God,  because  of  the 
severance  of  relations  that  God  has  appointed. 
And  because  founded  in  such  relations,  the  Institu- 
tion is  as  binding  upon  sinners  as  it  is  upon  saints; 
it  was  made  for  man ;  it  is  a  part  of  God's  moral 
law  for  the  race. 

3.  We  need  this  Institution.  All  men  need  it. 
It  is  a  wise  and  merciful  appointment  for  us,  inse- 
parably connected  with  our  present  and  everlast- 
ing good.  Holy  beings,  unfallen  spirits,  have 
need  to  devote  their  powers  and  a  portion  of  their 
time  exclusively  to  the  study  of  God's  manifesta- 
tions and  the  declaration  of  his  praise.  Such  need 
existed  in  our  first  parents  in  their  innocence,  and 
so  established  for  them  the  Institution. 

And  we  as  fallen  men,  yet  probationers  through 
rich  abundant  grace,  have  no  less  need  of  this 
precious  Institution.  Indeed  we  need  it  more  than 
do  sinless  beings.     We  have  more  occasion  and 


96  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

more  need  of  help  for  studying  God's  works,  provi- 
dences and  revealed  will.  And  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath is  not  only  a  memorial  of  the  divine  power, 
wisdom  and  goodness  as  evinced  by  creation,  but  is 
also,  from  the  Christian  platform  of  time  and  the 
Christian  mode  of  observance  a  rich  expressive 
memorial  of  God's  redeemincr  p-race. 

4.  How  beautiful,  how  beneficent,  how  sublime, 
this  Institution  !  Its  division  of  time  into  weeks 
memorializes  the  stupendous  magnificent  work  of 
Creation.  The  manner  of  its  observance  points 
to  the  various  divine  manifestations.  Its  authority 
and  duties  stand  supported  by  the  Divine  Examples 
of  Rest  and  Redemption.  Its  present  platform  of 
time  memorializes  the  divine  conquest  of  death  in 
the  Resurrection  of  the  Son  of  God — the  great  event 
and  crowning  deed  of  the  divine  manifestations  to 
man  on  which  rests  the  proof  and  power  of  the 
glorious  gospel. 

Hence  in  this  blessed  Institution  we  have  asso- 
ciated three  great  glories,  Creation,  Providence, 
Redemption — power,  goodness,  grace.  Here  are 
married  in  sublime  holy  nuptials  the  works  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost..  The 
Institution  was  founded  by  the  Father,  was  beauti- 
fied by  the  Son  and  is  now  baptized,  honored  and 
glorified  by  the  perpetual  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

The  Institution  is  most  noble  in  its  parts  and  in 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER    OP    OBSERVANCE.         Vi 

its  design.  It  is  full  of  the  most  expressive  and 
engaging,  grand  and  sublime,  high  and  holy  asso- 
ciations and  memories,  It  is  calculated  to  attract, 
instruct,  ennoble  and  inspire  every  sound  mind, 
every  friend  of  man,  whether  man  or  angel,  and 
every  sincere  devout  worshipper  of  God. 

When  we  come  up  to  this  Institution  as  we 
ought,  we  lay  our  earthly  toils  and  cares  aside,  we 
turn  our  minds  and  hearts  to  the  great  Source  of 
life  and  of  all  good,  we  feel  secretly  invited  and  won 
by  great,  beautiful  inspiring  truths,  by  bright,  glo- 
rious associations,  and  by  the  holiest  and  tenderest 
of  memories.  We  arise  on  wings  of  devotion 
by  the  strength  of  faith.  We  fly  in  holy  thought 
and  meditation  to  Eden,  and  from  Eden  to  Calvary, 
and  from  Calvary  to  the  Canaan  of  eternal  rest. 
We  hold  unutterable  communion  with  God  our 
Creator,  with  God  our  Saviour,  with  God  our 
Sanctifier,  anticipating  and  running  up  towards  the 
glories  and  the  light  of  the  new  Jerusalem. 

Who  but  a  sensual,  grovelling,  earth-bound,  sin- 
loving  spirit  can  neglect  and  despise  this  wise,  holy 
Institution  ?  It  is  what  we  absolutely  need  for  our 
instruction,  improvement,  conviction,  salvation  and 
sanctification.  And  for  these  great  ends  it  is  di- 
vinely given. 

5.  We  need  the  Institution  as  individuals.  We 
are  sinners,  and  must  be  saved  by  grace.  We  are 
ignorant,  and  need  instruction.  We  are  enslaved 
9* 


98  THE    SABBATH    INSTITUTION. 

and  blinded  by  the  God  of  this  world.  We  are 
required  to  exercise  repentance  and  faith.  We  are 
called  to  confession,  supplication  and  obedience. 
We  are  surrounded  by  temptations  and  allurements. 
We  are  constantly  exposed  to  the  wiles  and  sneers 
of  the  Adversary.  Under  all  these  circumstances 
we  need  the  Sabbath  Institution,  and  every  one  of 
us  needs  it.  No  man  can  afford  to  be  without  it. 
Who  ever  knew  an  habitual  Sabbath-breaker  to  be 
a  happy,  pure-minded,  honorable,  holy,  useful 
man? 

6.  We  need  this  Institution  as  families.  The 
family,  as  it  is  the  first  of  societies,  so  it  is  ever  the 
scource  and  centre  of  all  the  influences  and  all  the 
comforts  that  mark  society  as  a  whole.  With  pure, 
intelligent,  virtuous  families  a  land  will  be  pros- 
pered and  blessed  as  was  Judea  of  old.  And  for 
the  order,  peace,  purity  and  religious  welfare  of 
every  family  the  Sabbath  Institution  is  indispen- 
sable. Where  this  is  neglected,  error  and  sin,  and 
usually  gross  and  loathsome  wickedness  are  sure 
sooner  or  later  to  break  out  and  blast  all  that  is 
precious  and  lovely  in  the  circle  of  domestic  life. 
On  the  other  hand  God  loves  to  fulfill  his  promises 
in  bestowing  his  smiles  and  benedictions  on  those 
houses  and  households  where  his  institutions  are 
cordially  regarded.  It  is  found  historically  true 
that  in  proportion  as  the  Sabbath  Institution  is 
honored  by  families  in  that  proportion,  knowledge, 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER    OF    OBSERVANCE.         99 

virtue,  piety,  and  peace  are  sure  to  abound.  Every 
house  should  have  its  Sabbath  altar  from  which 
there  should  go  up  sweet  incense  of  prayer  and 
praise  to  him  who  sitteth  in  the  heavens  and  ruleth 
over  all  the  families  of  the  earth. 

7.  Of  the  benefits  of  this  Institution  to  commu- 
nities, to  states,  and  to  nations  in  all  their  interests, 
personal  and  common,  physical  and  moral,  intellec- 
tual and  commercial,  too  much  cannot  be  said. 
No  people  can  long  thrive  where  this  Institution  is 
despised.  It  is  God's  standard  and  ensign,  the  ark 
of  his  covenant  for  the  defence  of  the  people.  A 
Sabbathless  land  is  always  a  land  of  darkness  and 
of  evil  deeds. 

8.  A  distinguished,  experienced  merchant,  long 
accustomed  to  close  observation,  and  who  had 
gained  an  uncommon  knowledge  of  men,  remarked: 
'« When  I  see  one  of  my  apprentices  or  clerks  riding 
out  on  the  Sabbath,  on  Monday  I  dismiss  him. 
Such  an  one  cannot  be  trusted."  The  business 
affairs  of  life  are  really  safe  only  in  the  hands  of 
men  who  fear  God  and  honor  his  Sabbath  ordi- 
nance. 

Of  one  hundred  men  admitted  to  the  Massachu- 
setts State  Prison  in  one  year,  eighty-nine  had  lived 
in  habitual  violation  of  the  Sabbath  and  neglect  of 
public  worship. 

Of  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-two  convicts  who 
had  been  committed  to  the  Auburn  State  Prison 


1(K)  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

previously  to  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight,  four  hundred  and  forty-seven  had  been 
watermen — either  boatmen  or  sailors — men  who  to 
a  great  extent  had  been  kept  at  work  on  the  Lord's 
day,  and  thus  deprived  of  the  rest  and  privileges 
of  the  Sabbath.  Of  these  twelve  hundred  and 
thirty-two  convicts  only  twenty-six  had  conscien- 
tiously kept  this  divine  Institution. 

A  gentleman  who  has  had  charge  of  more  than 
one  hundred  thousand  prisoners,  and  has  taken 
special  pains  to  ascertain  the  causes  of  their  crimes, 
says,  "  that  he  does  not  recollect  a  single  case  of 
capital  offence  where  the  party  had  not  been  a 
Sabbath-breaker.  And  in  many  cases  they  assured 
him  that  Sabbath-breaking  was  the  first  step  in 
their  downward  course."  Further,  he  says  with 
reference  to  prisoners  of  all  classes  ;  ^^  nineteen  out 
of  twenty  have  neglected  the  Sabbath  and  other  or- 
dinances of  religion." 

Says  a  most  respectable  merchant  of  New  York, 
^<I  have  particularly  observed  that  those  merchants 
in  New  York  who  have  kept  their  counting  rooms 
open  on  the  Sabbath  day  during  my  residence  there, 
(twenty-five  years ^  have  failed,  without exce>ption. 

In  another  part  of  the  country,  an  old  man  re- 
marked, "  I  can  recollect  more  than  fifty  years ; 
but  I  cannot  recollect  a  case  of  a  man,  in  this 
town,  who  was  accustomed  to  work  on  the  Sabbath, 
who  did  not  fail,  or  lose  his  property,  before  he  died." 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER  OF   OBSERVANCE.       101 

An  old  gentleman  in  Boston  remarked :  ^'  Men 
do  not  gain  anything  by  working  on  the  Sabbath. 
I  can  recollect  men,  who,  when  I  was  a  boy,  used 
to  load  their  vessels  down  on  Long  Wharf,  and 
keep  their  men  at  work  from  morning  to  night  on 
the  Sabbath-day.  But  they  have  come  to  nothing. 
Their  children  have  come  to  nothing.  Depend 
upon  it,  men  do  not  gain  anything,  in  the  end,  by 
working  on  the  Sabbath." 

John  Richard  Farre,  M.  D.,  an  able  and  expe- 
rienced physician  of  London,  when  questioned  by 
a  special  committee  of  the  British  House  of  Com- 
mons upon  the  subject  of  laboring  six  days  or 
seven,  gave  the  following  very  important  testi- 
mony :  "^  I  have  practised  as  a  physician  between 
thirty  and  forty  years,  and  during  the  early  part 
of  my  life,  as  the  physician  of  a  public  medical 
institution.  I  had  charge  of  the  poor  in  one  of 
the  most  populous  districts  of  London.  I  have 
had  occasion  to  observe  the  effects  of  the  observ- 
ance and  non-observance  of  the  seventh  day  of 
rest  during  this  time.  I  have  been  in  the  habit 
during  a  great  many  5^ears  of  considering  the  uses 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  of  observing  its  abuses.  The 
abuses  are  chiefly  manifested  in  labor  and  dissipa- 
tion. Its  use,  medically  speaking,  is  that  of  a  day 
of  rest. 

"  As  a  day  of  rest,  I  view  it  as  a  day  of  com- 
pensation for  the  inadequate  restorative  power  of 


102  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

the  body  under  continued  labor  and  excitement 
A  physician  always  has  respect  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  restorative  power ;  because,  if  this  be 
lost,  his  healing  office  is  at  an  end.  A  physician 
is  anxious  to  preserve  the  balance  of  circulation, 
as  necessary  to  the  restorative  power  of  the  body. 
The  ordinary  exertions  of  man  run  down  the  cir- 
culation every  day  of  his  life  :  and  the  first  general 
law  of  nature,  by  which  God  prevents  man  from 
destroying  himself,  is  the  alternation  of  day  and 
night,  that  repose  may  succeed  action.  But, 
although  the  night  apparently  equalizes  the  circu- 
lation, yet  it  does  not  sufficiently  restore  its  bal- 
ance for  the  attainment  of  a  long  life.  Hence,  one 
day  in  seven,  by  the  bounty  of  providence,  is 
thrown  in  as  a  day  of  compensation,  to  perfect  by 
its  repose  the  animal  system. 

''  I  consider,  therefore,  that  in  the  bountiful 
provision  of  providence  for  the  preservation  of 
human  life,  the  Sabbatical  appointment  is  not,  as 
it  has  sometimes  been  theologically  viewed,  simply 
a  precept  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  political  in- 
stitution, but  that  it  is  to  be  numbered  amongst  the 
natural  duties,  if  the  prciservation  of  life  be  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  duty,  and  the  premature  destruction 
of  it  a  suicidal  act." 

Such  is  a  fair  presentation  of  the  merely  natural 
and  medical  view  of  this  Divine  Institution. 

"At  a   refjular   mcetinor    of  the    New    Haven 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER    OF    OBSERVANCE.       103 

Medical  Association,  composed  of  twenty-five 
physicians,  among  whom  were  the  Professors  of 
the  Medical  College,  the  following  questions  were 
considered  : — 

1.  Is  the  position  taken  by  Dr.  Farre  in  his 
testimony  before  the  committee  of  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  in  your  view,  correct  ? 

2.  Will  men  who  labor  but  six  days  in  a  week 
be  more  healthy  and  Hve  longer,  other  things 
being  equal,  than  those  Avho  labor  seven  ? 

3.  Will  they  do  more  work,  and  do  it  in  a 
better  manner  ? 

The  vote  on  the  above  was  unanimously  in  the 
affirmative ;  signed  by  Eli  Ives,  Chairman,  and 
Pliny  A.  Jewett,  Clerk." 

9.  But  the  great  controlling  purpose  of  the 
Institution  is  not  physical  welfare  or  pecuniary 
advantage.  Its  primary,  all-pervading  and  ulti- 
mate object  is  our  moral  and  religious  culture.  It 
is  pre-eminently  a  religious  Institution. 

It  exerts  a  powerful  check  upon  our  natural 
worldliness.  We  think  too  much  of  this  world. 
We  try  to  make  it  our  home  and  to  lay  up  our 
treasure  here.  We  are  prone  to  forget  God  and 
eternal  things.  The  Sabbath  is  a  divine  and 
merciful  check  and  preventative  against  this 
natural  and  depraved  inclination. 

We  are  wisely  required  to  abstain  from  all  our 
ordinary,  secular,  worldly   pursuits.     We  are  to 


104  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

seek  after  higher,  nobler,  more  valuable  and  endu- 
ring things.  Ceasing  from  the  weary,  uncertain, 
unsatisfying  chase  of  unsubstantial  things,  we  are 
to  give  ourselves  to  the  contemplation  and  pursuit 
of  enduring  riches  and  unfading  honors  at  God's 
right  hand.  We  are  to  do  no  secular  work  our- 
selves, nor  require  such  work  of  our  families  or 
servants  or  laborers.  No  man  should  sin  through 
his  agents.  We  should  not  even  let  our  beasts 
labor  on  the  Sabbath  ;  for  the  rest  is  necessary 
both  for  themselves  and  for  the  religious  quiet  and 
influence  of  their  owners  and  the  whole  commu- 
nity. On  the  Sabbath,  no  work  should  be  done 
by  man  or  beast,  which  is  not  clearly  a  work  of 
necessity  or  mercy.  The  Sabbath  is  for  God's 
service. 

On  this  day,  let  all  the  world  be  still,  and  let 
God  be  acknowledged  and  adored  and  obeyed. 
Every  man  should  obey  God  and  have  respect  to 
the  rest  and  religious  improvement  of  every  other 
man ;  and  hence  should  be  careful  to  do  nothing 
which  even  though  innocent  for  himself,  would, 
under  the  circumstances,  eventuate  prejudicially 
to  his  fellows.  Let  every  man  act  as  discreetly 
and  conscientiously  as  did  the  elder  John  Adams, 
w^ho,  while  President  of  the  United  States,  was 
once  travelling  to  Boston  to  visit  his  sick  family, 
but  on  account  of  a  severe  snow-storm  could  only 
reach  Andover,  about  twenty  miles  from  Boston, 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER   OF    OBSERVANCE.       105 

on  Saturday  night.  On  the  next  morning,  when 
speaking  upon  the  subject,  though  the  clergyman 
told  him  he  thought  there  would  be  nothing  wrong 
in  his  traveling  to  see  his  sick  family,  he  replied 
that  the  justifiable  occasion  in  this  case  would  not 
prevent  the  bad  influence  of  his  example  on  those 
who  might  see  him  traveling  on  the  Sabbath  with- 
out knowing  the  cause.  He  therefore  decided  to 
wait  till  Monday. 

But  alas  !  how  many  make  the  Sabbath  a  season 
for  pleasure,  amusement  and  dissipation.  Some 
ride  on  business  ;  some  for  pleasure  ;  some  take 
this  occasion  for  visiting,  or  walking  out  to  view 
their  premises  and  property,  and  discussing  with 
their  neighbors  the  affairs  of  this  world  and  their 
schemes  of  labor.  To  very  many,  the  Divine  In- 
stitution has  but  little  or  no  religious  significancy ; 
they  neglect,  abuse  and  squander  the  holy  appoint- 
ment. 

10.  The  Sabbath  should  be  strictly  devoted  to 
religious  duties.  The  performance  of  any  other 
except  those  of  manifest  mercy  or  necessity,  is  a 
profanation  of  the  sacred  Institution.  Not  but  that 
we  are  to  serve  God  continually  with  our  bodies 
and  spirits  which  are  his ;  to  be  ^'  not  slothful  in 
business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord  ;"  yet 
the  Sabbath  is  pre-eminently  chosen  for  religious 
duties  and  holy  ends,  when  every  possible  worldly 
labor  and  every  worldly  thought  must  give  place 
10 


106  THE   SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

to  the  interests  of  the  soul  and  the  declarative 
glory  of  God.  Of  the  appropriate  duties  I  need 
mention  only  a  few  of  the  principal,  for  every 
pious  devoted  soul  will  naturally  seek  and  readily 
find  the  duties  that  are  necessary,  becoming  and 
profitable. 

11.  We  should  read  and  sedulously  study  the 
Scriptures,  the  inspired  oracles,  which  are  as  a 
lamp  to  our  feet,  and  a  hght  to  our  path.  In  them 
alone  we  learn  of  Him  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth 
and  the  Life.  By  the  inspired  Word  we  are 
made  wise  unto  salvation.  They  that  love  God 
will  love  his  word,  and  love  to  occupy  a  portion  of 
their  time,  especially  their  Sabbath  time,  in  prayer- 
fully perusing  the  sacred  pages. 

12.  We  should  also  regularly  attend  social, 
public  worship.  We  are  social  beings  and  are 
socially  influenced.  Parents  and  children,  masters 
and  servants,  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  unlearned, 
have  certain  necessities  on  account  of  their  social 
nature,  if  not  from  other  grounds,  that  can  be  met 
ordinarily  only  by  social  public  worship.  So  we 
encourage,  instruct,  stimulate  and  edify  one  ano- 
ther. So  we  both  impart  and  receive  good.  So 
we  secure  and  improve  the  given  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  "  Forsake  not  the  assembling 
of  yourselves  together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is." 
<^  Happy  is  that  people  whose  God  is  the  Lord." 
"The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man" — the  race. 


CHRISTIAN    MANNER   OF   OBSERVANCE.       107 

13.  We  are  to  give  a  part  of  the  Sabbath  to 
prayer  and  to  praise,  The  Institution  testifies  of 
God's  wisdom,  goodness  and  grace.  It  is  calcu- 
lated to  elicit  thanksgiving  and  joy.  Praise  and 
prayer  should  be  sent  up  to  heaven  from  every 
heart,  from  every  fireside,  from  every  sanctuary. 
'^  Serve  the  Lord  with  gladness  ;  come  before  his 
presence  with  singing.  Know  ye  that  the  Lord 
he  is  God  ;  it  is  he  that  hath  made  us,  and  not  we 
ourselves  ;  we  are  his  people,  and  the  sheep  of  his 
pasture.  Enter  into  his  gates  with  thanksgiving, 
and  into  his  courts  with  praise  ;  be  thankful  unto 
hin:i,  and  bless  his  name.  For  the  Lord  is  good  ; 
his  mercy  is  everlasting ;  and  his  truth  endureth 
to  all  generations." 

14.  As  we  have  opportunity  we  may  attend  to 
works  of  mercy,  for  "  it  is  lawful  to  do  good  on 
the  Sabbath-day."  We  may  and  ought  to  instruct 
the  ignorant,  assist  the  poor,  and  administer  to  the 
sufTering.  We  may  preach  and  teach,  pray  and 
labor  to  fit  not  only  our  own  families  but  all  around 
us,  and,  indeed  all  the  world  so  far  as  we  are  able, 
by  heart  and  voice  and  hand  and  purse  for  the 
proper  duties  of  this  mortal  life,  and  for  the  cease- 
less services  and  bliss  of  heaven. 

15.  Considering  how  admirably,  mercifully,  the 
Sabbath  Institution  is  adapted  to  man,  to  secure 
our  earthly  peace  and  happiness,  to  promote  every 
desirable  pursuit,   to  multiply  every  personal,  do- 


108  THE    SABBATH   INSTITUTION. 

mestic,  social  and  common  good,  and  to  awaken 
and  incite  us  to  seek  for  glory,  honor  and  immor- 
tality, let  us  ever  remember  and  devoutly  observe 
it.  Let  us  specially  cherish  it  as  a  type  of 
Heaven,  the  saints'  everlasting  rest,  and  so  appro- 
priate it  as  to  be  fitted  in  our  thoughts  and  habits 
for  the  glorious  services  and  unspeakable  joys  of 
that  indescribable  state  of  felicity.  Let  us  always 
honor  the  Divine  Institution.  Let  us  also  faith- 
fully inculcate  its  observance  by  word  and  deed 
upon  our  children  and  upon  our  children's  chil- 
dren, that  God  may  be  known  upon  earth,  and  his 
saving  health  among  all  people. 


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